


outbreak (on hiatus !!)

by elizabethgetout



Category: Dream Team - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Gen, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27360826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethgetout/pseuds/elizabethgetout
Summary: other survivors have weapons, food, connections, power.what do they have?they have charisma, the will to live, and each other.hopefully it will be enough.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	1. outbreak

~ George's POV ~

"I just need one thing really quick." I say to Nick as I park my car in front of the convenience store. It's one of those small convenience stores with an apartment connected to it on top. I don't know why, but I like them better than the normal gas stations. Maybe it's the more homely feeling.

"Okay, I'll come inside too." Nick says, unbuckling as I put the car into park. I don't question it. We've been best friends for forever, and we're both used to following each other everywhere.

"Alright then." I unbuckle and we both get out. We walk into the store, the bright colorful open sign illuminating off my blue shirt. It's my favorite color, seeing as it's one of the only colors I can actually see correctly. I open the door and it swings open, a bell ringing as the cool air of the store hits my face. A fan whirs in the corner, the sound of freezers buzzing quieting the popular songs playing over a speaker on the wall. A boy sits behind the counter, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the counter, a book in his hand. As Nick and I step inside, he puts his book down for a moment to smile at us. It's a simple, customer service smile that he might not mean. He looks back to his book and pays us no more mind.

"What do you want?" Nick asks, instinctively going over to the cheetos and salty snacks and looking through the available selection.

"I just need a couple things." I consider grabbing a shopping basket, but decide that I'm not getting enough to need a basket. While Nick is looking at the bags of chips and trying to choose between two brands, I traverse the store. It's pretty small, a little smaller than a regular chain gas station.

I walk past magazine stands and freezers with enticing looking ice cream, aisles with basic medications and a slushie machine that spins fruit flavored ice. It would probably be very colorful, but it's just a mess of yellows and blues for me.

I walk to one of the coolers in the back, and notice a door with the label 'stairwell' above it. It's probably connected to the apartment above. Whoever owns this store probably also owns the apartment above.

While I contemplate which drink to get, I notice another person in the store. A boy in a white hoodie with sandy hair and tan skin. He's looking at some collective figurines of astronauts. I finally decide on a drink to get, and turn to my left and Nick is there. He's holding a bag of takis.

"Can I get these?" He asks, showing off his teeth and batting his eyelashes. I roll my eyes at his playfulness.

"Sure, whatever." I say, him following me to the next aisle so I can get a snack.

"I'll pay you back, don't worry." He says as we turn onto the candy aisle.

"It's literally like two bucks. I'll cover it." I assure him.

He shrugs. "Okay." Not fighting with me over it. Nick likes to pretend he'll be fine paying for it, but really he wants you to pay for it. I really don't mind. We've been best friends for so long, I'm used to it by now.

I scan over the selection in the candy aisle, but can't find what I'm looking for. I swat Nick and take his attention away from the TV broadcasting the news in the corner.

"Help me look for some chocolate raisins." I tell him. He lets out a small chuckle.

"Dude, seriously?" He asks me.

"Yes, seriously. Now help me look." I tell him. He does this every time. It's not that weird of a snack.

"Should be on the bottom shelf." Someone else pipes up. I look down the aisle at the cash register where the voice came from. The boy still has his book up, but is using one hand to point down. I think it's the first time I've heard him speak.

Nick follows his directions and spots them. "Gotcha!" He announces with triumph, grabbing a box of chocolate covered raisins and tossing them to me. I almost drop them, but I catch them pretty clumsily. Nick laughs at me and it makes my cheeks flush a little.

"Do you want something?" I ask, gesturing to the candy display, trying to distract him from my act of stupidness. He turns to the candy.

"Uhh..." He trails off, looking at the selection. While he's deciding what to get, my eyes drift to the tv in the corner. It's changed to a news channel. A brunette woman in a pink overcoat is standing outside the white house. I don't really pay attention to what she's saying, but I notice all the lights are out in the white house. The ribbon on the bottom of the screen reads 'Jennifer Flagg : The dead air at the White House'.

Nick grabs his candy and it tears me away from the tv screen. "All ready?" He asks, looking over my haul. I nod, and we head for the counter.

The boy seems to have heard us, as he puts his book away and stands up. He gives me that customer service smile again as Nick and I put our loot in front of us on the counter. I get a better look at him.

He's got deep yellow hair for me, which means his hair is probably blonde. He's got freckles on his cheeks, and what I think are green eyes. He's got an apron over his normal clothes, with a nametag stapled to his chest. Part of the name tag has been rubbed out or smudged, so I can only read the first letter. It's a C, with maybe an H after it? I can't be sure.

He looks about my age, probably working here so he can get through college like Nick and I are, like we all are. As we set out things on the counter, he begins to plug the costs into the cash register.

"This all for you today?" He asks us, and we both nod in reply. While he's manually punching in the costs of our snacks, my eyes drift once again to the tv, looking for something to keep me preoccupied while we're rung up.

The music over the speakers has quieted down and is softly playing some song about a sweater, so I can hear what the woman is saying. She's saying something about the government having gone silent since five days ago, how all the lights are out at the white house and the president hasn't said anything, not even on twitter. No one knows why or what's going on. There's some crazy conspiracy theories going around right now about the country collapsing or a threat to the country from japan, but I'm not really into that kind of stuff.

"Isn't that stuff kind of crazy?" A voice pulls me away from the tv, the boy behind the counter. He must have caught me staring. "Some people are throwing around crazy accusations about the whole charade."

"Oh yeah?" Nick asks, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looks at the boy. "Like what?"

"I heard one about the vice president getting threats from aliens in outer space wanting to free their friends from area 51." He says, plugging the last item's code into the cash register, then looking at us. "But those are just theories, right?" He asks, offering a playful smile and a wink.

"I'm not into that kind of stuff." I say, offering a small chuckle. The boy shrugs as he types a couple more things in.

"Gotta keep yourself occupied somehow. Your total is 8.92." I hand over my credit card and he swipes it. I watch him as he types in a couple more things, but Nick's gaze drifts to the large windows to our left. I look at his expression for a moment out of the corner of my eye, and see his brow is furrowed, and he's frowning.

"You good, Nick?" I ask, tracing his gaze to see what he's looking at it. I quickly see that the sky isn't blue anymore, but it's instead a murky yellow color. Red, I think? The sky isn't supposed to be red. What's going on?

The boy behind the counter turns to see what we're looking at, and his expression is just as confused as ours. For a minute I think we're the only people seeing this, but then I see a couple other people walking into the road and staring at the sky. Is there a fire nearby or something?

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up and something tells me to look at the tv. There's a faint ringing in my ears as I slowly turn to look at the tv.

For a minute I don't know what I'm looking at. But then I realize what I'm looking at when the camera focuses on an airplane taking off, the logo 'New Fairview Airlines' stapled on the side of it. Everything looks normal, and I wonder why there's just raw footage of an airplane flying on the tv.

Then the airplane combusts into a giant ball of red hot flames. My eyes widen as it begins to erupt into flames, consuming the entire aircraft's body. Someone behind the camera screams as it starts to nosedive. The video cuts off.

"What the hell?" Nick mutters.

"New fairview." The boy behind the counter says. "That's not far from here."

More screaming, but this time it's not coming from the tv. I whip around and look outside. People are running down the streets, and cars are barreling down the street crazily and almost hitting people. The other boy from inside the convenience store runs past me and exits the store hastily, then runs down the street.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask no one in particular. My eyes are drawn back to the tv when the sirens start.

The screen is colored with one of those tv static screens, reading 'EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM'. The blaring noise reminds me of those purge movies. What the fuck is happening?

𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚. 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖 𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩. 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐.𝙎 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙠 𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮. 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖 𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩."

This is something out of a horror movie. I've only ever heard emergency broadcasts like this as tests on the radio. Is this seriously happening? Am I dreaming?

The message repeats a couple times, but I'm stuck in a trance. I'm staring at the tv screen in the corner, my heart pounding out of my chest, my ears ringing. My limbs are heavy and my legs have turned to pudding. I can't move.

Something grabs my wrist, shocking me and breaking me from my trance. I look up, and it's the boy from behind the counter.

"We've gotta go!" He says urgently, almost in a shout. "Follow me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! just a reminder this has been cross-posted from wattpad. you can find it under my account @ elizabethgetout
> 
> i have a lot planned for this story, so i hope you'll stick around!
> 
> also if any of you are confused, Nick is SapNap, that's his real name. he mainly goes by Nick in this story, but he may be referred to as SapNap at some points.
> 
> This story will be from multiple different POVs, fyi.


	2. on our own

~ Nick's POV ~

Day #176 since the outbreak started

Today started like any other. The sun rose, and like every other day I'm surprised it does. After everything that's happened, I sometimes expect to wake up and not see the sun any more. Maybe one of these days the sun will just stop shining, or the earth will stop spinning. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that happened.

Like usual, George, Dream and I took turns keeping watch over the night. Can't be too careful during the end of the world, ya know?

If you're from the future and you've found this journal and you've randomly flipped to this page, let me catch you up to speed. Basically, it's the end of the world.

I never thought something like this would happen. Feels like something out of a cheesy slasher flick or one of the video games George and I would play together after a long study session for our college classes. But no, here we are, traversing the waste land that once used to be the world we thought we knew.

Basically, there were a bunch of nukes that came out of nowhere. No one knows where they came from. Some people thought they came from the north koreans, but from what I know, they got nuked too. The whole world has gone up in flames, society's crumbled, the government went silent and everything is a total mess.

Did I mention there's zombies too? Yeah, there's zombies. I'm not kidding. God, I wish I was. I don't know exactly how it happened. It could have been the radiation from the nukes, or maybe one of the new vaccines or medications that came out right before the whole world went to shit. I never thought I'd tell anti-vaxxers they might be right about something.

From what we've gathered from surviving 176 days out here, they're completely braindead, sluggish and slow, and dumb as hell. All they know is wander, eat, and spread the virus. They're really nasty looking, and the bites are absolutely disgusting. My friends and I are smart enough to not have gotten bit, but we've seen the bites before. They bleed and have gross green pus, and stink like shit.

Thankfully the zombies are really dumb. They don't know how to climb, and you can easily outrun them. They spread the virus through bites, just like the cheesy zombie movies that George and I watched together when we were in college.

God, I never thought I'd say I miss college, but here I am. I'd rather be in any situation other than the one we're in right now, where we have to fend for ourselves and try and survive in this wasteland that we used to know as a home.

The first few days were a nightmare. If I was given the option of deciding where I'd want to be when the world ended, I would not have chosen the basement of some dude's convenient store. I would have chosen a bunker stocked with tons of food and a bunch of floors and maybe a pool and shit, not a musty cellar with boxes of food to restock the shelves above us on the ground floor.

The emergency broadcast thing told everyone to seek shelter immediately, so George, the cashier and I took up refuge in the cellar. We were there for about two weeks? Maybe three? We've been keeping track of how much time has passed with some calendars from the store, but I don't exactly remember when we left there.

We camped out there for a while because of the resources, so we got pretty fucking lucky, unlike some people. From what I've heard over the small radio we take with us, a lot of people got killed by the explosions, or lost close ones to the radiation. I don't even know what happened to my family. I tried to call them one of the first days, and I was able to talk to my sister. We only got to talk for about five minutes before the line cut out. She told me they're heading to somewhere where they'll be safe. She was about to tell me where so I could come find them, but then the line went dead.

I have no idea if they're okay, or even alive. I just have to hope.

Every time I get cell service, I try to call them, but I haven't had any luck. A lot of people gave up on their phones, but I only keep mine around to try and reach my family.

Anyways, this Dream guy is pretty good with this survival stuff. From what he's told me, he's a huge zombie apocalypse stuff fan(haha nerd), so he basically is a pro when it comes to stuff like this. I think he's the only reason we've survived.

He taught George and I how to shoot, but neither of us are as good as him. I'm honestly too afraid to ask him where he got this gun knowledge from. He knows how to scavenge, find food, and is pretty good at scouting for safe places we can take refuge in. I've also shown him how to use a knife, and some first aid stuff. He's pretty chill, and we got pretty lucky he's in our party.

Currently we're taking up refuge in a small hut in the woods. We've traveled pretty far so far. Before we left the convenience store, George made sure to grab a map so we can know where we're going. George is pretty much the brains of our operation, as Dream and I would never have thought to grab a map.

We found this cabin while trekking through the woods, and were pretty lucky to get to it just before sun down. We've been here for two days, as we've been walking a lot and needed a place to rest.

While the cabin is awesome and fully stocked with enough beds, some stale food and first aid supplies, there are a lot of zombies around. George thinks this cabin may be a part of a nearby campgrounds, so that may explain why there's a lot of zombies around.

We've gone outside the cabin a couple times to grab firewood or look for animals to hunt, and almost every time we see a zombie or two. Zombies' sight is pretty bad, so if you're quiet enough you might be able to evade them. They mainly come out during the day, I think it's because it's easier for them to see? I have no clue how zombies work man(or woman, dunno who could be reading this.)

Currently, the sun is setting over the horizon. I can just see it through the cracks in the planks we've set up over the windows. Never can be too careful with zombies. We've boarded up the windows and doors, and we've used our trusty padlock to lock the hatch on the roof. It's not just to keep out the zombies, though.

We've run into a couple other groups of survivors. Usually they're friendly, like the girl and boy we ran into who we stayed with for a couple of nights. They were really sweet, and their dog Alyx was adorable. But there's also bad people, like raiders, for example.

Raiders are basically just that. Groups of people who decide they want to make the end of the world worse by being dicks and stealing from people, and even killing other survivors. Like, what the fuck man? I'm fine with taking down groups of zombies with my machete, but killing another human being? Not. Cool.

Dream is sitting by the fireplace, whittling down a piece of wood with his pocket knife. He's humming some tune while he mindlessly works, but I can't name it. George is checking over and counting our supplies, as we're planning on leaving the cabin tomorrow and heading out again. I'm sitting on my bed, writing in the journal, the radio sat next to me. I grabbed this journal from the convenience store, and have decided to write everything down. Might as well write it down in case it's useful later, right? Or maybe if someone finds this after our untimely demise, they can get a kick out of how stupid we were.

No one is talking. Usually we would be talking to each other to try and lighten the mood, but not right now. The sun is almost down, and it's Friday. The radio is turned on, and we're all waiting. Waiting for the radio to spark to life, instead of just playing low warbling.

Suddenly it's blaring to life. All our heads snap to the radio as someone's voice comes over it. I'm scrambling to make sure I can write down whatever our unknown messenger tells us. Today it's a woman's voice. I think.

"Greetings fellow survivors, from Providence. If you can hear this and are currently surviving the apocalypse, please listen to these next words carefully; We have set up a safe place in southern Utah. We have medical supplies, weapons, and food. If you are in the nearby area, we urge you to head our way. You can stay here in Providence with us, or pick up supplies and be on your way. We wish you good luck in surviving out there in the wastes, and hope to be seeing you someday. This message was brought to you by the survivors here at Providence."

She then proceeds to read out the coordinates of the safe place, Providence. But we've heard them so many times they're practically ingrained in our memory.

You see, this broadcast has been transmitted every Monday and Friday night, ever since about the third week of the end of the world. There's a safe place for survivors, and we're heading there.

After the message is over, Dream speaks up.

"Well, I guess that settles it. We're leaving tomorrow." He sets down his stick of wood, then grabs his gun. "I'll cover the first watch tonight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> snapmap
> 
> thanks for reading! <3


	3. the dream team

~ Dream's POV ~

I got a couple hours of sleep in last night. While I enjoy sleep as much as the next guy, it's pretty fun to stay up for a couple of hours on the roof of a cabin and shooting down any zombies that come near. It's actually a really great stress reliever, and recently, I really need to relieve some stress.

Existential dread of death looming over your head? Shoot a zombie!

Wondering when the next time you're going to eat is going to be? Splatter some brains of the undead!

Worried about your family and wondering if you'll ever see them again? Stab a gross motherfucker in their decaying chest!

I enjoy sitting out on the roof in the night air, the cool breeze hitting my face as I keep an eye out for zombies. The trees are swaying in the gentle breeze, and the stars and moon are making their appearance as the sky darkens. The howl of some creature sounds off in the distance. Could be a wolf, but it could also be some monster that has been created by a result of the radiation from the nukes. Either way, I don't think I want to find out what it is.

The wind rustles my hair a little bit. It's grown out a bit ever since the end of the world. I tried cutting it once, but George discouraged me since I cut it all choppy. It's kind of fun to annoy him, seeing his face scrunch up when I do something stupid. He tries to ignore me because he knows I'm just trying to get a rise out of him, but he's really bad at it.

I get a couple of hours of sleep in once Nick comes to take my place. Thankfully I'm not plagued by nightmares like I usually am, so I get a couple good hours in. Then I'm being shaken awake by George, and it's time to get ready to go.

We don't have much stuff, as it's best to pack lightly when you're traveling constantly. We're trying to get to this safe place that's been set up called Providence. It's been pretty slow so far. We were lucky enough to find a car at one point, and drained it entirely of gas as we traveled.

I've got all my stuff packed, and check the bullet count on my gun. I put another pack of bullets in my hoodie pocket just in case I need to reload quickly. It's my favorite hoodie, in my favorite shade of green. But unfortunately, It's been splattered with blood from both me and the undead, and it's got a couple holes and cuts from wearing it so often. George is putting on his backpack, and Nick is writing something down in our journal.

"Ready to head out?" I ask them, slinging my gun over my shoulder. Nick nods, closing his journal and throwing it in his backpack. He grabs his machete that's been leaned up against the wall and holds it close.

"I call first dibs on any zombies we see." Nick says, a playful smirk edging it's way across his face. "I like seeing their heads roll across the concrete."

"That's gross, Nick." George says, fastening a small knife to the holster around his leg.

"They're zombies, dude." Nick says.

"I think you're just crazy." George says, folding up his map and putting it in his pocket. It's crazy how that giant map can be folded up into something so tiny.

Nick goes to open his mouth and argue back, but I stop him. "I'd love to stay here and argue all day, but we should probably get going." I tell them. They both nod, and we head for the door.

We get the boards off the door, and take our first nervous steps outside of what has been our home for the past few days. It's been a pretty nice place to stay at, and under different circumstances, I would gladly stay here again. But then there's a pang in my chest, and I don't want to think about it any more.

We start off in the direction George points us in. He's been our navigator, as he's good with directions and following a map.

"And here goes the Dream Team, off on another adventure, ready to take over the world." I narrate as we begin to walk. George chuckles as Nick scoffs.

"Who decided you get to be the leader?" He asks, commenting on the fact I put my name in the title.

"Well it's definitely not you." George says, holding back a snicker. Nick shoots him a playful glare. They go off for a minute about it, but I'm too busy spacing out. I'm genuinely glad they haven't questioned my name.

We follow along a bark trail for a while, and I spot a couple birds hopping between branches high up in the trees. Lucky little shits, they probably don't have to worry about zombies. They can just fly away with a flap of their tiny wings.

Branches crackle under our feet as we trudge through the forest, climbing over fallen trees and carefully edging down steep ledges. I notice a stream with some tadpoles and frogs, and a couple squirrels are chasing each other around and over trees. With the fall of humanity has brought the rise of agriculture. Forest animals don't have to worry about their homes being destroyed by humans, there's no more littering, and I'm pretty sure that the ocean won't get any more polluted by plastic. Hopefully after we're gone, the animals can start over and not have to worry about humans messing the world up. God, that's depressing.

After about half an hour of walking and a bit of zombie slaughtering, we break through the tree line. We stop at the edge and look over at the scene lying ahead. There's a decline ahead of us, and in the distance I can see a small town. A couple roads lead off in different ways, and it looks pretty deserted. I can spot a couple zombies milling about here and there, but they shouldn't be too much of a problem.

"Race you to the bottom!" Nick says, shoving George playfully before taking off.

"Oh, you're on!" I say, trailing after him as we both run, Nick laughing.

"Guys! We need to stick together!" George whines, reluctantly following behind.

~

We get to the town, and it's pretty much empty. Buildings that once used to tower over everything have crumbled and have decayed over time, other buildings overgrown in ivy and overrun by weeds. As we walk along the pavement, dandelions and grass peak through the cracks in the path. I kick a small rock along as we walk, eyeing a small group of zombies that wait ahead of us. I grab my gun and load it, aiming it at one of their heads.

I fire a bullet into the first zombie's head, and it falls over and squirms around. The other zombies look towards the source of the noise, at us. I take another shot at the zombie squirming on the ground, and it stops moving. The others take off towards us.

I shoot down another zombie as Nick gets out his machete and runs at one. George stands close to me, also firing off a couple shots. Soon enough, all the zombies are down. I'm looking through windows in the shops, while Nick is cutting off the zombie's head. It's scary how clean their heads pop off. Nick says it's to make sure they don't get up again, but it may also just be for his amusement.

We find a gun shop and go inside to look for supplies. Unfortunately, most of it has been raided already. I'm able to find a couple boxes of bullets for myself, and George grabs a new gun and some ammo. We look around for some food, but unfortunately just find more zombies. That's how it usually goes, nowadays. If you're looking for something, you're usually just going to find zombies instead.

After looking through a good section of the town, it starts to get dark out. We found a bit of food that will get us through tonight, and set up camp in a small abandoned store. We push some tables up against the front door, then get set up in the back storage room. We lock the door for good measure.

"How close are we getting, George?" Nick asks as he chews on a granola bar, looking at the brown haired male who is looking over the map. He's running his hand through his hair as he looks it over.

"We still have a ways to go." George says, holding up the map for us to look at. "If we can find a car, that would be really great."

"You're telling me." I tell him, playing with the strings of my hoodie. "Walking is a pain in the ass. At least we're getting good cardio."

"You really need to change that." George says, looking over my green hoodie, which is probably yellow for him because of his colorblindness. His eyes trail over the multiple blood spots on it. "It's getting super nasty."

"It's not like I have anything else to wear." I tell him, fully aware of the fact that there's probably a clothing store somewhere in this town where I can find a new hoodie. But I don't want to let go of this one.

"Oh my god, you should totally take your shirt off, Dream." Nick says in a playful tone, making me laugh.

"Shut up, Nick." I say, picking up the closest thing, a deck of uno cards, and chuck it at him. He chuckles as he dodges my throw, George rolling his eyes at our interaction.

We play uno for a little while, and then George has first watch, so Nick and I get some rest. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more adventures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> huehue
> 
> don't worry, the next chapter is much more exciting ;)
> 
> thank you for reading!


	4. the crash

~ ???'s POV ~

This week has been one of the best weeks of my life. I've gotten to meet up with my two best friends in the entire world, and we've spent the entire week together. Going to the zoo, watching scary movies together, staying up all night just talking and enjoying each other's company. I've known these guys for so long, and it's so nice to finally meet up with them and just spend time together.

But it's all coming to a close. I know it would come sooner or later, the wistful goodbyes. I tried to get it out of my mind, but it's been lingering over me. Sometime sooner or later I'm going to have to say goodbye to my best friends, and head back home.

But for now, I'm just going to enjoy my last few minutes with my friends.

We're currently sitting at the airport. My flight will be boarding soon, so we're waiting. Of course I have to leave first. I don't want to have to say goodbye to my friends, but at least I get to say goodbye to both of them at the same time.

They're both sat next to me, and we're talking about anything except the thought of saying goodbye. It's hanging heavy over all three of us, though. We're just trying to avoid it as long as we can.

"So if you have to fight off either a werewolf or a vampire, which one are you choosing?" The boy to my right says. He's leaned on my shoulder, his legs over the armrests of the next chair over.

"Uhhhh, probably the werewolf." The boy to my left says, his slight accent audible in his voice.

"Why's that?" The boy to my right asks, curiosity obvious in his voice.

"Cuz it's a werewolf, so it'll only be like that for one night. But if you defeat the vampire, it'll probably only keep coming back again and again, cuz they're immortal right?" He says, explaining his answer. It's like he's thought about this before.

"That's fair." The other boy says with a shrug. "What about you?" He asks me, turning to face me, his lips upturned into a mischievous smile.

"Um, how about neither." I answer with a nervous laugh, adjusting the glasses on my face. I don't like violence, even in video games.

"You're a party pooper." The boy to my right says, sinking lower in his chair as he whines like a child. I feel bad for my answer and run my hand through his fluffy black hair. His frown quickly turns into a smile as I do it. We sit in silence for a couple more minutes, me running my hand through his hair, the other boy looking through his phone. Although none of us are talking, this moment is sweet, and I'm glad I have them by my side. I check my phone.

"We only have 14 minutes left together." I break the silence, a slight frown on my face as I put my phone back in my hoodie pocket.

"Don't say that." The boy to my right says. "I don't want either of you to leave. We haven't had enough time together."

"I don't want to leave either." The boy to my left says with a sigh, putting away his phone and crossing his arms. My gaze drifts to the large windows to our right. An airplane is taking off, and my eyes follow it for a minute as it gets into the air and starts drifting away from us, taking its passengers away. I'll be on a plane soon, flying away from my best friends.

No, don't think of that. Think of something else. I look around for something else to focus on. The tv in the corner playing a sports game, a baseball player having just hit a home run. I watch the revolving doors spin at the exit, a man with a clean shaven beard exiting the airport, a CS brandished on his suitcase. My eyes drift to the planter box at the other side of the room that's shaking.

Wait... Why is it shaking? I blink a couple times, and suddenly the ground is shaking too. My friends realize and sit up.

"Earthquake?" The boy to my left asks, gripping the sides of his chair as we watch everything around us begin to shake ever so slightly.

"Must be." The other boy says, a bit of panic in his voice as he sits bolt upright. That's weird, earthquakes aren't common here. Maybe an aftershock from somewhere else?

After a couple seconds, it stops. Everything suddenly goes still, and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"That was weird." I say, putting a hand on my chest and taking some deep breaths. I can hear my friends take some calming breaths as well, and my gaze drifts to the plane in the sky. I bet the people on the airplane didn't feel the mini earthquake we just had.

Then the airplane's on fire. My eyes widen and I let out an auditory gasp, standing up. Both of my friends hear it and look towards the scene. The plane is quickly entirely engulfed by the red hot flames, then divebombs.

"What the fu-" My friend starts, but he's cut off.

Suddenly there's an explosion, and I'm thrown back. My back hits something hard, and I let out a groan as the wind is knocked out of me. My hand flies to my back, now flaring up in pain. I take a deep, sharp breath, and look around. The entire airport is collapsing around me.

My mind immediately flies to my friends. Where are they? Are they okay?!

I call out their names, trying to stand. A pain flares up in my leg, and I'm wobbling. I grab onto a pillar for support, looking around the crumbling airport, dust flying up from the rubble.

I hear coughing, and make my way over. I see one of my friends coughing, on his hands and knees. He looks up to me, and I help him stand up. Small white pieces of debris litter his hair, his glasses broken on one side.

"What the hell just happened?" He asks, but I can't respond, not even to tell him to watch his mouth. My mouth is completely dry, and I can't find any words.

I need to find my other friend.

~ George's POV ~

This is terrifying. I never say it, but it's true. I want to be brave, and strong, like my friends. They're so confident and fearless, but I'm scared out of my wits. I have been since the first day. I couldn't even move when I saw that plane fall out of the sky in a fireball. I'm sure I would have just stood there if Dream didn't grab me and break me out of my trance.

This is exhausting. I don't say anything, though. I feel like I'm not contributing anything to the team. Dream is a good fighter and scavenger, and Nick is good at combat and a quick thinker. But all I do is get in the way and use maps. Nothing useful. I'm constantly tired, and I feel like I don't even deserve to be on this team with these people. Constantly moving over land without breaks and with little food has drained me. I feel like I can collapse at any moment.

My back is up against the cold wall of the storage room of whatever this building used to be. A clothing store? A bakery? A baby store? Doesn't matter now. Whatever used to take up home here is gone, and whoever owned it is probably dead or turned into a mindless zombie by now. My eyes are fixated on the door, my small gun glued to my hands. I'm completely still except for the rising and falling of my chest as I watch the door, ready for anything or anyone to burst through those doors and kill us without a second thought. Whatever happens, Nick and Dream need to survive. They deserve it.

Maybe I don't.

The stirring of someone at my side draws my attention away from the locked door. I see Dream slowly waking up, rubbing his tired eyes as he sits up. He offers me a tired smile and I give him one back.

"I can take over watch now." He says, scooting over a bit closer to me, ready to take my position. I just nod and set my gun down. "You okay?" He asks.

"I'm fine." I lie, trying to give him a convincing smile. I can tell he doesn't believe me, but he doesn't question it. He just scooches a bit closer to me, and I can feel the warmth of his body on mine. My eyelids feel heavy, and my breathing is slowing down to a steady pace.

I drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :o
> 
> thank you for reading!


	5. lock the doors

~ Nick's POV ~

Day #178

I'm being awoken by someone shaking my arm. I groan and try to push them away, not bothering to open my eyes. But the person keeps shoving.

"Nick, get up!" George whisper-shouts at me. My eyelids flutter open tiredly, and I sit up groggily.

"What is it?" I ask, looking around to get my bearings. We're still in the storage room. "What happened?" I ask quietly, sensing the urgency in George's voice.

"You fell asleep on your watch last night." Dream hisses quietly. He points to the door. "Someone is out there, and they don't sound friendly."

"Fuck." I mutter. How could I be so stupid?(reminder: never fall asleep on watch. everything goes to shit once you do.)

"What do we do?" George asks, grabbing his gun hesitantly. We all look at each other, not knowing how to answer. Dream swallows hard and stands up. He carefully walks to the door, and peers out the peephole, which for some reason the door has???? He furrows his brow for a moment, then looks back to us.

"It's two boys." He whispers, just barely audible for us to hear. George and I both scramble over to the door. Dream steps away so we can look through the small opening. I get as good a look at them as I can through a peephole.

Two boys, human looking enough. One is a couple inches taller than the other, with close cropped brown hair and startling green eyes, a pair of glasses sitting upon his face. The other has darker skin with fluffy black hair, and angry brown eyes. I can barely make out what they're saying through the door.

"-seriously going to be like those people?" The brown haired one says, arguing with the other one. The other rolls his eyes at his companion.

"We have no choice. All our supplies have been taken, and we haven't eaten in a couple days." The black haired one says, and I realize he's holding a gun. The other is empty handed, but his large build suggests he could be a good hand-to-hand fighter.

The brown haired boy sighs. "I don't condone this. I still think it's a bad idea. One of us could get hurt, and we're pretty empty handed." He gestures to the other's gun. The other sighs and takes his friend's hand.

"Listen to me, we need whatever supplies are in there. We go in and grab them, and then we can get the hell out of here." He offers a smile.

"L-Language..." The other mutters, earning a snicker from the other.

I pull away from the door.

"They're going to try to steal our stuff." I relay the information to my friends. Dream grabs his gun and George stands in front of his backpack defensively.

"There's more of us than there are of them." George says, adjusting his grip on his weapon. Dream nods in reply. I grab an extra gun, deciding that it's better than my machete for now. We take our stand around the door, our guns aimed and ready.

For a minute, there's complete silence. I wonder if they discovered the door was locked and left.

Then the sound of someone picking a lock. Damn, one of them is pretty sneaky after all.

The door is thrown open, and there stand the two boys. Their eyes widen in shock when they see three guns pointed directly at them. The brown haired one grabs the arm of the dark haired one. We all stand there for a moment, staring each other down.

"Drop your weapon." I finally break the silence, eyeing the black haired boy's gun. He seems to have just realized he's holding a firearm, and quickly gathers his composure. He scowls at us, and aims his gun at me.

"How about you drop your weapon." He retorts back at us.

"Skeppy..." The brown haired boy says, his green eyes flitting around the room, tracing over the loaded weapons in our hands. "Are you really doing this?" The black haired one does not respond to his friend.

"Listen to him." Dream says, gesturing towards me with a head tilt in my direction. "Drop your weapon. Now."

The boy's eyes flit over the shaft of his weapon, then at Dream. "I don't think so." He aims his weapon now at Dream, perhaps deciding he's the most dangerous.(little fucker, i'm the most dangerous.)

"Skeppy." The other boy says again, the voice of reason. "Put your weapon down. It's three against one."

The black haired boy, now annoyed, scoffs and turns to his friend, still not lowering his firearm. "You don't think I can take them?" I look to George for a minute, confused as to why they're having a full on conversation with us pointing guns at their faces.

"Not in your condition." The brown haired boy says through his teeth, shoving the other a little. "Remember what happened last time?" I just now notice the large bandaging wrapped around the black haired boy's left leg, a lot of it stained red from blood. Something's telling me that last time did not end well for them, and probably has something to do with the wound on the boy's leg.

The black haired boy finally begrudgingly lowers his gun with a groan. The brown haired boy, in triumph, puts his hands up in a surrendering position. The other boy slowly follows suit, doing the same as his friend.

"Now if you three could lower your guns, that would be wonderful." The brown haired boy says, his tone calm, with a hint of tiredness seeping in.

"And why would we do that?" George asks, though I can tell he's beginning to feel bad for these two strangers, and I am too. It sounds like they've gotten their supplies raided, and judging by the one boy's wound, they are in dire need of medical supplies and food.

"Please, we just need some supplies. We're not looking for a fight." The brown haired boy says, desperation in his tone. His expression is pained. Either this dude is a really good actor, or they are actually on the brink of giving up.

"Why should we help you?" Dream says, ever so slightly lowering his weapon, as if deciding they're not a threat any more.

"You don't have to." The boy quickly says. "Just let us go. We're just trying to get to the safe haven." My ears perk up. I lower my gun.

"Wait, you're going to Providence too?" I ask. The boy's eyes light up.

"You've heard the broadcasts too?" The black haired one asks, some hope flitting back to his defeated brown eyes.

"We're headed there too." Dream says, finally lowering his gun like George and me, but keeping a hand on it just in case. "George, Nick, can I talk to you for a second?" Dream asks, turning to us. My eyes dart to the two boys still in the doorway, then back to Dream and George. I nod, and he takes us aside for a moment.

"Do you think we can trust them?" He asks in a hushed tone, doing his best to make sure the two can't hear our conversation(i'm pretty sure they could hear us,,,,).

George shrugs. "I don't know. They don't seem that dangerous. They just seem like they got unlucky and beat up and need some help."

"They could be acting." Dream says, looking at the other two out of the corner of his eye, urging me to look as well. They're still there, conversing quietly like we are. I wonder what they're talking about.

"True." I say. "But I have a feeling they're not acting." You know those gut feelings you get about someone or something, usually if they're a bad or good person? I'm getting one of those right now. Something tells me they're actually all out of materials and food, and just need some help.

"I think we should help them." George pipes up. "It just seems like the right thing to do."

"Okay." Dream says with an exaggerated sigh as he rubs his chin methodically. "But if they turn out to be raiders or something like that, I'm blaming it on you." He points at us and gives us a serious look. We both nod, and then we turn to the two boys.

"I suppose we could offer you some help." Dream says with a shrug, in a we-don't-have-to-but-we're-going-to-cuz-we're-good-people voice. The brown haired boy's green eyes light up.

"Really?" He asks. He sounds genuinely happy that we're going to offer them help.

"Yeah, of course." George says, offering a kind hearted smile. "Survivors gotta help other survivors, right?" Then a thought hits me, like a bag of bricks to the face.

"Wait, neither of you are... y'know... infected, right?" I ask, my hands finding themselves hovering over the pocket knife strapped to my leg underneath my cargo shorts.

"What?! No!" The black haired one says defensively, a bit too fast. He starts playing with the cuffs of his hoodie sleeves. The brown haired one looks away, perhaps nervously, perhaps trying to hide something.

I decide not to dwell on it. If one of them is hiding a zombie bite, we can take them. There's three of us, and two of them.

"No matter." George says with a shrug, waving it off. "You guys said you hadn't eaten, so you need something to eat, right?" Both of their eyes light up at the mention of food.

"Wait, you guys are serious about helping us?" The brown haired one asks, taking the hand of the other one.

"Yeah." Dream says, putting his hands into his blood stained hoodie pocket(ylegh, bro you really need to get rid of that thing). "We'll help you as long as you don't give us a reason to not trust you."

The two take a tentative step into the room, examining from wall-to-wall as George rummages through his backpack. We get out a bit of food to share with our new acquaintances, and sit down in the middle of the room.

"So, what are your guys' names?" George asks as he lays out our rations in the middle of all of us, the two sitting down warily. The black haired one sits down carefully with the help of his friend due to the wound on his left leg.

"Oh, I guess we haven't really introduced ourselves." The brown haired one says with a nervous laugh, crossing his legs into a criss cross position.

"I'm Bad, and this is Skeppy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two new characters: bad and skeppy! congrats to anyone who guessed that the fourth '???' pov was bad, you are correct! he will be the fourth pov in this story, but unfortunately skeppy will not have a pov.
> 
> thank you for reading!


	6. friend or foe

~ Dream's POV ~

Interesting names, by far. But hey, I shouldn't be one to talk.

"Bad and Skeppy?" I ask, making sure I heard them right, pointing to them respectively. The black haired one, Skeppy, nods.

"It's nice to meet you." Nick says, offering a nice enough smile. "I'm Nick, and these two asshats are George and Dream." He says, pointing to us. George glares at him and I roll my eyes.

"Language..." The brown haired one, Bad, mutters, earning an eye roll from Skeppy.

"So, what's to eat?" Skeppy asks, a well timed growl coming from his stomach.

"Uh..." George says, looking through what he's brought out. "We've got a couple cans of food and some stale snacks..." He pushes out the food so we can look it over. Two cans of green beans, a can of pears, a couple granola bars and a nut bar.

Not a lot.

"We'll have to go on a supply run before we leave the city." I say, watching the two newcomers eye the small stash of food hungrily, but not moving. "Oh, you guys go ahead and dig in." I say with a nervous laugh. I can hear their stomachs growling. They probably haven't eaten in a couple days.

"Are you sure?" Bad asks, wincing a little. "I still feel a little bad..."

"It's completely fine." George says, smiling at them. "Go ahead."

They tentatively start eating, and I can see their eyes light up when they finally get some food in their bodies. Like Bad and Skeppy, George, Nick and I eat a little as well. We make sure not to eat all of our supplies, just in case we won't be lucky enough to find any when we eventually leave the confines of our temporary safe home.

We start to talk to get to know our new friends, and of course, our first topic is the end of the world.

"So did you guys know each other before the end of the world?" Nick asks as the two munch on green beans and nut bars.

"Yeah." Skeppy says in between bites of a stale nut bar. "We were actually in the middle of meeting up, 'cause we were internet friends before." He explains, pointing to Bad. Bad smiles and nods along in a dreamy state, perhaps reminiscing about the good times before the world went to shit, or maybe just happy because he finally got some food in his system.

"What about you guys?" Bad asks, looking at the three of us.

"These two knew each other, not me though." I say pointing to George and Nick, then proceeding to rub the back of my neck awkwardly. They both nod as they listen to our stories intently.

"So, is it just you two, then?" Nick asks through a mouthful of stale granola bar.

Immediately the air in the room seems to be sucked out. The smiles that used to be on the two's faces completely disappear without a trace, not even the ghost of what used to be left behind. Bad's shoulders fall, and Skeppy retreats into himself.

"Yeah, just us." Bad says nervously, trying for a smile that is so obviously forced I want to gag myself on a stale granola bar.

"I couldn't have asked for a better partner during the end of the world!" Skeppy says, immediately changing his energy with the snap of your fingers, like he's trying to get off the current subject. He throws an arm around Bad and pulls him close. Bad smiles nervously as Skeppy seems to crush him.

"Oh." George says, blinking a couple times surprisedly. "You two are dating?" He asks, since Skeppy just said 'partner'. Bad's eyes go wide.

"No, we're not- No." He says, throwing his arms up defensively. Skeppy scoffs.

"We're not?" He says, fake hurt in his voice as he pulls away, placing a hand on his own chest. "I thought we had something special, Bad!" He puts out his lip, but Bad just rolls his eyes, unamused, and continues to munch on the rest of his food.

"I apologize for my friend, don't listen to him." Bad says, pushing the black haired male away from him.

"It's fine." I find myself saying. These two sort of remind me of me and my friends. It's nice to see other survivors sort of like us.

"Hmm..." George hums, digging through our bags. All our eyes fly to him and what he's doing.

"What is it, George?" Nick asks as we all watch him rummage through our things. His brow is furrowed and he's biting his lip. For a moment I'm worried that the two have secretly stolen all our things while we've been distracted. But, they couldn't have done that, we've been watching them the entire time...Right?

"We really need to go on a supply run before we leave." He says, opening up one of the bags and showing it to us. I frown at the ultimate lack of medical supplies and food.

"Everything's pretty much been raided." Skeppy says, beginning to pick at the bandaging on his leg Bad smacking his hand to get him to stop. These two might have been here before us. Who knows how long they've been in this town desperately desperately searching for something.

"I'm sure we can find something." I say, surprising myself with the optimistic tone I'm talking in. Maybe it's knowing how close we're getting, or maybe it's the newfound confidence I have with two more members in our party. There's some part of me that hopes they'll stick with us. Maybe I knew them in a different life or something.

No, that's crazy.

"We can help you guys." Bad says, suddenly standing up, looking rejuvenated from the little bit of food he ate. "We owe it to you for helping us."

"Yeah, who knows." Skeppy says, standing up with the help of Bad. "We might even stay with you guys." He shoves his hands into his hoodie pocket and brandishes a smile. I immediately hop to my feet and dust myself off.

"Well, then if everyone is in agreement, I guess we should get headed out." I help George up, and we all nod at each other in arrangement.

~

We get our things packed up, and we're on our way. Usually I'm sort of sad to leave the safe place we set up home for the night, but not with that place. It was a musty back room that smelled of mothballs and had cobwebs in the corners. There was this weird air of emptiness there, I've noticed that a lot when we've been traveling.

Everywhere is just so empty. We barely see any other survivors, and every building we come across is either raided, destroyed to bits, or overtaken by agriculture. Everything has this strange post-apocalyptic world air to it that I guess just makes sense given the situation.

We've decided to try and avoid Zombies as much as we can. We need to save our ammo, as who knows when we'll come across some more supplies. That's how things go a lot during the apocalypse, rationing our supplies for as long as possible. We're currently making our way down an alleyway, keeping our footsteps as quiet as possible as we shuffle along the overgrown pavement.

I'm leading the group as usual, Nick by my side, his eyes darting around warily as we make our way through the back alleys. Bad and Skeppy are in the middle of our train. Skeppy has a very visual limp, and Bad is practically glued to his side to catch him any time he stumbles on an askew pebble or a tossed aside missing poster. George is bringing up the rear, his pocket knife in hand, his blue eyes quickly scanning over everything in our path.

Although zombies are dumb as hell, it's annoying to try and avoid them. Make the slightest bit of noise and they all know your exact location before you can even fucking breathe. We've had to climb a couple fences and squeeze down tight alley ways just to avoid the undead.

It's a sad sight, honestly. Watching them wander around aimlessly, no memory of what they used to be before the end of the world. Someone who just got a new kitten? Someone who just won the lottery? Someone who just discovered they're going to be a parent? I try not to dwell on it too long. I used to feel bad about shooting them down. Part of me wondered if we could save them, if the government would develop a cure and they could come back.

But that part of me died a long time ago when I lost all hope of the government saving us. They went silent five days before the nukes came. They probably knew about the whole thing, and just decided to fuck us all over and abandon the rest of the world. I knew the government was corrupted, but seriously? I sometimes wonder what they're all doing. Are they secured in a bunker somewhere with a bunch of food and their loved family members?

Best not to think about it for too long. I get angry whenever I do. I try to keep some hope that we can start over from all of this, but after almost six months of this, I'm beginning to lose hope here.

We've been maneuvering through the city for about 45 minutes now. We're pretty deep into the city by now, and it's getting harder to avoid the few zombies that meander over the streets. As we walk I've noticed manhole covers, and I've considered if navigating through the sewers would be easier. It would stink like shit, but it might be easier. Unless they're filled with radiation created monsters, and I wouldn't put that past the world right now. You wouldn't believe the crazy mutated creatures we've come across during our ventures.

We're walking in a single file line in complete silence when someone behind me makes a small gasp.

"Guys, look over there." Bad speaks up quietly. We all turn to look in the direction he's pointing, our eyes following his gaze.

A run down and beaten up Walgreens sits across from his point. All of the lights inside have been turned off, climbing ivy has made its way up one of the brick walls, and boards are haphazardly nailed over the front doors.

A beacon of hope, or a death trap? We'll have to find out.

We make our way towards the Walgreens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmm walg reens
> 
> sorry i honestly dont know what to put here
> 
> thanks for reading!


	7. worth a shot

~ Bad's POV ~

It's just been me and Skeppy for a while now. Sometimes I feel really lonely or down, but then I remember at least I have Skeppy. While he can be annoying and one of his favorite past times is to tease me, I'm glad I have him by my side.

But I won't lie when I say I'm glad we found more survivors. We've run into no one friendly out here, just groups of raiders. Like the last group we found that shot Skeppy in the leg for no reason. They also stole all of our supplies, and I wasn't so sure if we were going to make it. I did my best to patch up Skeppy's leg, but with our lack of medicinal supplies and my little medical knowledge, his leg has barely healed and he can barely walk without me helping. I was about to give up hope.

I don't want to lose you too.

Then we found Dream, George and Nick. We got pretty lucky that they're friendly, otherwise we'd definitely be done for. I just hope we're not too much of a burden on them...

"Help me get these off." Nick says as we get to the entrance of the Walgreens, immediately walking over to the boards plastered carelessly across the windows. I follow him over as he begins grabbing at one edge of the long, wooden boards, and I take the other end. As we use our force to try and pull it off, I'm worried the wood might splinter. But with enough force, we pop it off.

With a bit of the window exposed, I try to peer in. All of the lights are off and the window is caked in dirt and muck, so it's hard to see anything. I eventually give up and help Nick get some more boards off the window.

"Why do you think it's boarded up?" Skeppy ventures as Dream and George begin to get the boards off the door, him being too hurt to be able to help.

"Maybe someone used it as a hiding spot at one point." Nick guesses as we throw another board onto the growing pile, getting closer to being able to get inside the abandoned store.

"Don't you think the boards would be on the other side of the building, then?" George asks. He's got a good point. If someone was using it as a base, they would board it up from the inside. So instead of trying to keep something from getting in, what were they trying to keep from getting out?

"What's inside that's so dangerous, then?" Skeppy asks, seeming to be thinking the same way as me.

"Only one way to find out." I speak up as Nick and I remove the last board, opening up the entrance to the slowly decaying Walgreens. I look it up and down, and so does the group of survivors around me. The once illuminated sign has been taken over by agriculture, climbing ivy and deserted bird nests lining the bold lettering. The bricks making up the walls have eroded away over time, and weeds have climbed through the cracks and are slowly taking it over. It's crazy how much one building can change from being left behind and forgotten for almost six months.

My hand instinctively goes to my belt to grab a weapon, but there's nothing there. I huff when I remember those stupid raiders stole all our supplies. Guess I'm going in empty handed.

The once automatic doors won't budge, so we have to pry them open. George is first to step inside, his steps careful and his hand on his small handheld gun. I go in after him.

The only light inside the small building is coming from the dirt caked windows, so it's pretty dark inside. The floor is covered in a thin layer of dust and grime, evident that it's been a long time since anyone set foot in here. Every now and then as I walk, my feet bump into something on the ground. I don't look down as I go through the store.

Soon enough we're all in the store, cautiously making our way through. Skeppy's quickly on my trail, his limp still slowing him down. I slow down my pace to match his.

"It's so dark in here." Nick points out, squinting through the darkness.

"We should see if we can get the lights turned on." I say, looking up at the ceiling to see the rod lights still intact above us.

"I don't even know if they still work." George says, also looking up.

"It's worth a shot." Skeppy says with a shrug. "Where do we find the power switch?"

"Breaker room." Dream says quickly, his eyes immediately scanning the back wall. He makes his way to the wall, and the rest of us spread out to look for supplies. Skeppy sticks with me as I wander into an aisle.

"Can you see anything?" I ask him as I blindly reach around on one of the lower shelves, looking for anything to grab in case it could be useful.

"No Bad. Last time I checked, I don't have night vision." He tells me in a matter-of-factly voice, but I just roll my eyes at him. I pull what feels like a box out from the shelf and try to read the label. I put it back when I see the Trojan helmet logo. I keep scrounging around for anything when Skeppy starts walking away. I raise an eyebrow and follow him. He stops at a pole at the end of the aisle, his eyes fixated on something attached to the pole.

"What are you looking at?" I ask, standing next to him. He doesn't answer, but after some focusing, I can make out the shape of a glass casing surrounding an emergency fire axe. I get a glimpse at Skeppy. His eyes are determinedly focused on the axe inside the protective casing.

Before I can stop him he slams his elbow into the middle of the glass, shattering it. I jump back and gasp as he pulls back.

"Skeppy! Why did you just do that?" I sputter out as he clears out some of the glasses with his covered hand.

"To get the axe, duh." He says, turning to me before grabbing the axe. "Jesus, are you blind?"

His words sting a little, but I know he doesn't mean it. I cross my arms as I watch him examine the axe now in his hands.

"I hope you didn't hurt yourself." I say, my eyes traveling to his elbow that he used to break the glass. The fabric on his hoodie is a bit ripped.

"Don't worry about me, I'm always careful." He turns to me with a playful smirk, and I can't help but roll my eyes. I notice Dream out of the corner of my eye and turn to look at him. It looks like he's found the breaker room door, but he's having trouble getting it open. I walk over to him.

Dream is tugging on the handle, but it won't budge. He lets out a disappointed sigh.

"I've got it unlocked but it won't budge." He explains, giving it another tug. I examine the crack in the door. Maybe something's been jammed inside that's preventing it from opening. Or maybe it's just been so long since the door opened that it's cemented itself closed.

Skeppy seems to be thinking the same way I am. He pushes me aside. "Step away from the door." He says, readjusting his grip on his new firearm. Dream and I take a step back.

"Skeppy, are you sure about thi-" Too late, he's swung his axe at the space between the door and the wall. He wiggles it around, and the door swings open. He pulls it out and steps back with a triumphant smile.

"You're welcome." He says, putting a hand on his hip triumphantly. I sigh as Dream pulls open the door. It's obvious by the dust flying up into our faces that this door has not been opened in a long time.

The three of us all take a tentative step inside. It's a small storage room, with shelves stacked against the wall on one side with various restocking supplies. Dream's eyes light up and he immediately walks over and starts examining the bounty in front of us. He takes off his backpack and immediately starts shoveling cans and medical supplies into it. It's nice to see how his eyes light up when he sees the supplies, because there's so little left in the world right now to make someone happy.

"Oh my god!" I whip my head around at the sudden urgency in Skeppy's voice.

"What! What is it?" I ask frantically, seeing the horrified look on his face. He shakily points to the corner of the room. Dream is suddenly at my side and we're both looking to see what he's staring at.

There's a body in the corner. A decaying body.

"Fuck." Dream says blandly.

"Language! Both of you!" I stammer out, finding myself unable to tear my eyes away from the body.

From what I can tell it's a girl's body, and she's been dead a long time. It doesn't look like a zombie bite, either. Her body has just been decaying the corner for who knows how long. Her skin is sickly pale and rotting in areas. Her clothes have been eaten by moths and caked in layers of dust. Her hair looks like it used to be purple, and cobwebs cover a name tag reading the name Tiffany.

"What's wrong, I heard someone-" Nick says, rushing in with George on his tail. "Oh god." He stops in the doorway when he sees the body.

"That's what I said." Skeppy says. "I think I'm going to be sick." He turns and exits the room. I decide I don't want to stand around and look at a dead body and follow him out of the room.

After a moment or two the lights switch on. Skeppy and I look up at the fluorescent bulbs roaring to life as there's noise of triumph coming from the breaker room. Once the lights are on and I can see properly, I follow the directions to the medical supplies aisle.

The shelves are completely bare. It's evident that someone has already come through here and raided it. There's a couple boxes left of gauze and a couple bottles of ibuprofen. I rummage through the shelves as Skeppy watches me, leaning against the shelves.

"Are you going to help grab supplies?" I ask as I reach against the back and come back with a couple boxes of bandaging that I put into my pack.

"Why should I? You're doing so good by yourself." He says, too busy digging out the dirt from under his fingernails to look at me.

"You are so unhelpful." I say, shaking my head as I finish grabbing medical supplies and zip up my bag.

"I am crippled. Do you want me to do something that could make it even worse?" He says, feigning an offended tone.

"Bending down to grab supplies would not make it worse." I say, standing up and slinging the pack over my shoulder. "And you are not crippled. Your leg is healing."

"Whatever you say, doc." He says, and I can't help but smile. "Are we almost done here? This place blows."

"You are so weird, Skeppy." I say with a chuckle, and he smiles at me. It's nice to see him smile again. I just hope I can see him smile again before our luck eventually runs out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: foreshadowing is my favorite writing tool c:
> 
> take that as you will
> 
> thanks for reading!


	8. paper packages

~ George's POV ~

The first night with our new survivor friends went surprisingly well. I don't know what I was expecting-One of them to stab us in the necks in the middle of the night and steal our stuff? After analyzing them I realized they wouldn't. And I'm not saying they're weak or anything.

Skeppy is too injured to do it. Judging from the large bloody bandage on his leg and the limp he has when walking, he couldn't so much as walk for ten minutes without help. Bad is too calculative. He's quick to analyze risks or outcomes, but he's also too careful and worried. But hey, I guess we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I just hope that they'll stick with us and I won't have to use their weaknesses against them.

After we boarded up any entrances and set up camp, we all got some sleep in and took turns taking watch. Then we got everything packed up, grabbed the last of the few supplies we found in the barren Walgreens, and started our long trek.

It only took us about half an hour to get out of the city. We only encountered a couple zombies that were easy to get rid of, and got out of there. We followed a road which according to my trusty map, will lead us to our destination. Unfortunately we might have to traverse across a lake which may mean bears or snakes, or worse, both.

We're trudging down the road. It's been an hour or two, who knows. The sun is hot as it beats down on us, and the bugs are not friendly. We've only come across one building so far, a gas station that had some stale twinkies and weird hunting memorabilia. There was a back room we tried to get into, but the iron door was glued shut. Dream tried for a good five minutes to get into it, and even commandeered Skeppy's new axe to try and break down the door. But it didn't budge. We told him it wasn't worth it to waste a bullet or two, so we kept on our way.

As we continue, something in the distance catches my eye. I find myself slowing down, and since I'm in the front of the group everyone else behind me follows suit.

There's something on the ground about twenty feet from us. It looks square shaped, but it's covered in something. Maybe a blanket? Is it a person?

"What is that?" I find myself mumbling. I stop about 15 feet away from it, and Nick bumps into me from behind.

"What? Why'd you stop?" He asks, slightly annoyed as he looks up from his journal. I point to the thing in our path. The other three follow my gaze as well as Nick. We take a couple more wary steps toward the thing.

As we get closer, I get a better look at it. It looks like a box covered in some sort of thin sheet. What is it, though? My curiosity wants to remove the sheet and look at whatever is concealed beneath, but the rational zombie apocalypse part of my brain says not to risk it and keep going.

Dream steps in front of me and precariously pokes at it with his gun, then steps back carefully.

The box does not move.

I find myself reaching out to him and pulling him back in case something dangerous is inside. What do we do? Continue on and forget about this mysterious box? Or take a chance and risk dying to appease our curious human nature?

"Wait..." Someone finally speaks up, Bad. He steps out from behind us and takes a careless step towards the concealed package awaiting us. He stands over it and begins to reach down.

"What are you doing?" Nick asks, and Bad stops. He turns to look at Nick. "You don't know what's in there-It could be a bomb for all we know!"

Bad just shakes his head, as if he knows what is waiting underneath the sheet. "It's not a bomb." He tells us, surprisingly optimistic.

"How do you know?" I ask. He doesn't respond. He simply leans down and picks up the sheet and we see what is beneath it.

A brown package, resembling an amazon box.

Not as intimidating as I first thought.

"And... What are we looking at?" Nick asks. Bad rolls his eyes.

"Skeppy and I have seen one of these before. It's like a care package with random supplies inside." Bad explains, showing the sheet to us. "See this? It's a mini parachute." I take a step closer and examine it. I didn't see it before, but there are strings attaching the sheet to the box. It is a care package.

"Where did it come from?" Dream asks looking up at the sky, soon all five of us surrounding the box. If anyone passes us by, they're going to think we're freaks. Or worse, zombies huddling around a dead body ready to maul. I get antsy at the thought of getting shot down by some careless jerk who might mistake us for the undead.

"I don't know." Skeppy answers this time. "They have parachutes, so I assume they're being dropped from the sky. Maybe a plane? Or a drone?"

"Well what are we standing around for? Let's open it!" Nick says, brandishing a smile, resembling that of a giddy child on Christmas. He kneels down and pulls out his pocket knife and begins slicing through the tape, everyone taking a step back so he doesn't cut our ankles in his excitement.

He cuts through the blue and yellow duct tape sealing the box, and pries it open. I examine the outside of the box as he tears it open to get to the contents. There's a strange logo of a blue panther with a murky yellow lightning bolt coming out of it's eye. I don't recognize the logo and turn my attention back to what Nick has just uncovered.

He folds out the flaps to reveal....

"A bow and arrows?" Nick asks, surprise obvious in his tone. He takes out the long range weapon and holds it for us to see.

"Well that's not what I was expecting." Dream says with a shrug, taking the weapon from Nick and running his hand over the sleek wood. He tries to hold it, but it's obvious from his stance and the way his hands are on it he's not experienced with this type of firearm.

"What were you expecting?" I ask.

"Not this." He says.

"I know how to use one of these!" Bad speaks up, and Dream hands it over to him. Unlike Dream, when Bad holds it looks right. It's obvious he's used one before by the way he takes an arrow and expertly nocks it.

"Of course." Skeppy snickers. Bad snaps his head to the raven haired boy.

"What do you mean by that, Skeppy?" Bad asks, lowering the weapon.

"If anyone knows how to use such a weird weapon, of course it's you." Skeppy says, as if challenging his friend.

"Uh-! It's not weird, Skeppy, it could come in handy." Bad quickly retaliates.

"Yeah, if we were in lord of the rings." Skeppy says, and Bad huffs. These two fight a lot, but it's obvious they care for each other, even if they never say it outloud. There's some unspoken trauma lying beneath their surfaces, that's for sure. They've definitely been through some unspeakable events together, seeing as even though they constantly bicker, they never leave the other's side.

While the two friends are squabbling, Nick pulls something else out of the box. A couple of water bottles with the same blue and yellow panther logo on the outside, and a small card with the same mysterious animal.

"A card?" Dream snatches it from Nick's grasp as Nick puts the water bottles into his pack.

"What's it say?" Skeppy asks, turning his and Bad's attention away from their quarreling. Dream furrows his brow as he folds open the card and reads it to us.

"A gift from the Beast corporation. We hope these supplies will keep you protected on your travels. Stay safe out there." Dream reads aloud in a slightly monotone voice. Nick takes it from him and reads it, then tosses it aside.

"Thanks 'Beast corporation'!" Nick says, then puts on his pack and continues walking. I look to the others, wondering if we're just going to continue on with our day. Dream and Skeppy follow quickly behind, as Bad slings the quiver stocked full with arrows and the bow over his shoulder. I follow suit behind them.

As we keep walking, I can't help but notice the blood splatters along the side of the road. The way the blood trail appears, it's like something was being dragged along while bleeding. I don't like looking at it, it makes me feel sick. So I tear my eyes away from the ominous dried blood on the asphalt.

Suddenly there's a noise off in the distance. It sounds a bit like very distant thunder, or a very loud dying fan.

It's only a few seconds before I figure it out when a blue lamborghini whizzes by us. I don't get a good look at the two figures inside, but there's cat ears on the headlights, and fishing rods sticking out of one of the backseat windows. Who would go fishing during a time like this? I guess we all have our ways of coping.

"Jackass, you almost hit me!" Skeppy squeals, even though the luxury car was nowhere near hitting him.

"Relax, Skeppy." Bad says, as we watch the car quickly get out of our field of view.

"I wish we had a car." Skeppy huffs. He then turns to Bad with a sneaky grin. "Hey Bad, you should carry me."

Bad raises an eyebrow. "What? I'm not carrying you!"

"Why not? I'm super tired, and my leg is still healing!" Skeppy whines.

"Just because your legs are tired doesn't mean I'm going to carry you. You're probably really heavy, too." Bad says, avoiding the shorter boy's gaze.

Skeppy crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. "Pfft, fine. I knew you weren't strong enough anyways."

That makes Bad scoff. "Oh you did not!" He groans. "Fine, get over here!"

Skeppy giggles as he climbs onto Bad's back, and they proceed to start walking like that. I raise an eyebrow and turn to Dream to see if he's seeing the same thing as me. He glances at me before smirking.

"Oh, there's no way I'm ever carrying you." He says, shooting a playful look. I consider telling him that's not why I looked at him, but I decide to just drop it. I roll my eyes as we continue walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, i now have an official discord for this story! if you want updates about the story, to discuss theories and assumptions with fellow readers, post fan-art, or just want to make some new friends, feel free to join! this is my first time making a discord, so it may be a little crappy.
> 
> https://discord.gg/EBETFaAS
> 
> thanks for reading!


	9. night was falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the group keeps progressing forward, but find an unlikely enemy

~ Nick’s POV ~

Day #179

Branches and leaves crunch under our feet. The sky keeps getting darker and darker, the stars beginning to shine as the sunlight fades away over the silhouettes of the treetops. I have to squint to be able to see what’s in front of me, and I almost trip a couple times over a tree root or something that feels strangely resembles that of a decaying body. I just keep progressing forward.

The forest is completely silent except for the sound of our feet against the dry forest floor, and the distant howling of some animal way off in the distance. There’s a silent prayer between the five of us that we'll find a way out of the forest before we find whatever is making that howling noise.

George says we need to get through the forest, and we should cross over into Utah. But according to him, the forest wasn’t even on the map. Maybe the forest is a result of the nuclear bombs that were released all over the globe? The world may never know. There is some dread in the back of my mind it’s not on the map because we’re going the wrong way, or got turned around and we’re somehow lost.

What I wouldn’t give for a flashlight right now. It would be so convenient to just shine it around and look for a place to camp out for the night, or maybe some food, or a potential danger for us to avoid. But it could also give away our spot to any enemies we might make in this forest. I would give up some of our food, or maybe my jacket, or even Skeppy.

“Shouldn’t we find someplace to camp for the night?” Skeppy breaks the silence with a whisper(speak of the devil), more howling echoing off in the distance. I can barely make out the shorter boy’s outline in the darkness, but it looks like he’s shivering by the way he’s running his hands over the sides of his arms. He has long since abandoned his position of being carried by Bad, who surprisingly carried him for a long while.

“That seems like a good idea.” George says, folding up the map and tucking it away in his pocket as we all come to a stop to listen. “This forest wasn’t on the map, so I have no clue how close we’re getting to the edge. Maybe we can find a tree to sleep in?”

“Does anyone have any rope?” I ask, zipping up my jacket to keep the cold from getting in. Everyone looks around at each other, waiting for someone to bring out a beacon of hope and magically have some rope so we can secure ourselves into a tree high above any danger. But everyone’s mouths are glued shut, the only noise the quiet howling of the wind and rustling of leaves.

“I think our best bet is to keep going until we find somewhere we can stay.” Dream says. “Like a cabin, or maybe a cave?”

“Alright.” Bad says, pulling out his water and taking a quick swig. The rest of us follow suit before continuing on, matching sure to preserve as much of our supplies as possible without dehydrating ourselves too much.

We keep trudging without giving a second glance to anything unremarkable we come across in our path. Until we see something strange.

We get to a patch in the forest where there’s just nothing.

We all stop at the edge as we look it over. There’s a giant ring around the forest, and a massive crater in the middle. It has to be spanning at least forty feet on each side. Some grass has tried to grow over the exposed dirt, but other than that there’s completely nothing around the edge.

“What happened here?” Bad asks as we all stare at the crater in front of us, none of us daring to step in.

“It looks like some sort of explosion went off.” Dream says, his eyes following around the ring of the destruction. “Maybe one of the nukes went off here?”

“Looks like a pretty small nuke.” I say. I decide to be the first one to step into the crater. The edge around it is a bit steep, so I have to shimmy down the edge.

“What are you doing Nick?” George asks as I get to the bottom.

“It looks like it’s pretty safe down here.” I tell them, taking a couple steps around and looking around for any signs of immediate danger. I turn to my friends and give them a little wave, and they begin to follow me down.

“This looks like where a boss battle would take place.” Bad says as he helps Skeppy down into the pit.

“God, you’re such a nerd, Bad.” Skeppy says, causing Bad to give him a glare. At least I think he does, I can’t see much in the darkness.

George walks around the rim of the crater, every now and then kicking hesitantly at the walls of the pit with his dirty blue converse.

“Dude, what are you doing?” I ask as I watch him, trying to hold back a snicker.

“I’m looking for fox dens.” He says, proceeding to do his unusual task. “Maybe if there’s an abandoned one we could take up camp in it.”

“Do you know how small fox dens are?” I ask him as I trail behind him, not disturbing his work.

“It’s an idea.” He says with a tired sigh. I’m sure if I could see his face he would have bags under his eyes. We’ve been trekking through the forest for a good couple hours now. He pokes at a group of fungi near a small hole that could possibly be a fox den, but decides to keep walking.

We eventually get to the other side of the crater, and we all help each other up. I have to help George up, cause he’s so goddamn short(haha).

Once we’re all up to the other side of the crater, we resume our walking. The wind is lightly whistling and grazing my ears, and the howling starts again, this time closer. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up from the closeness of the noises, and I find myself walking faster. Unfortunately my friends don’t keep the same pace as me.

“Why are you walking so fast? Slow down.” George scolds me, an edge of exhaustion evident in his voice.

“Yeah, Nick.” Dream says, yawning as his steps get sluggish from fatigue. “Rule number one of horror movies is to never split up.”

“I wasn’t splitting up from the group.” I testify, my shoulders hunching up as I defend myself. “And this isn’t a horror movie.”

“Feels like one.” Skeppy says blandly as he pulls his hoodie over his head, and I guess he’s right. The scavenging for food and not knowing when we’ll eat next. The constant trudging and moving around with the uncertainty of if we’ll ever actually be safe. The constant dread of wondering if there’s mutated monsters on our tails.

We fall into an uncomfortable silence as we walk. I begrudgingly keep in line with my fellow survivors, even though I can feel something is off. My eyes scan across the line of trees to my left, and I freeze in place.

A pair of yellow eyes are staring straight at me from the shrubbery. I’m frozen in my tracks as a shiver goes down my spine. How long has the shrouded creature been following us?

“Guys.” I manage to get out through my teeth. The others turn to face me tiredly.

“What is it Nick?” Bad asks, too loud for my liking.

“Stop. Moving.” I say, not tearing my eyes away from the other pair staring back at me. Suddenly there’s another pair of yellow eyes staring back at me. I can’t help but notice how quiet it’s gotten in the forest, no sounds besides us. No whistling of the wind, or crunching of leaves, or kicking of rocks.

“Why? What’s going on?” George asks, squinting at me for a moment. Then he follows my gaze and spots the now three pairs of yellow eyes. He lets out an auditory gasp and grips Dream’s arm.

Soon enough we’re all staring at the four pairs of glowing yellow eyes.

No one makes any noise, I’m even afraid to breathe. Any sudden movement and we’re done for.

Suddenly the four figures emerge from the shadow-casted treeline. The moonlight decides to peer through the trees overhead and illuminate our executioners.

I consider for a short moment running, or possibly screaming, but it’s too late.

The wolves are upon us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> get ready folks, next chapter is going to be a doozy :)
> 
> don't know when it will be out, but be ready for some bloodshed. muahaha
> 
> thanks for reading!


	10. the dark wood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw; this chapter does have blood, please continue reading with caution if you are sensitive to blood c:

~ Dream's POV ~

"No sudden movement." I get out through my teeth. All five of us have frozen in our tracks after seeing the wolves staring us down like we're a fresh, tasty meal. Which, I guess we are if we don't get out of here.

"What do we do?!" Skeppy frantically whispers, slowly moving his hand to grab the gun secured to his belt.

"Back away slowly, maintain eye contact." I say after a moment of racking through my brain. My Dad and I used to go hunting before...

Nevermind that.

I look straight at the Wolf closest to me.

The Wolf doesn't exactly look like a normal wolf any more. It has bloodshot red eyes, and parts of it's fur have clumped together or completely fallen off. There's exposed bone and muscles on some parts of it's limbs, and it's foaming at the mouth.

As we slowly back away, the Wolves just keep advancing, closing the distance.

"They're not backing away." Nick says frantically, as if none of us have noticed that already.

"I know that." I sneer, slowly moving my hand to grab the gun from over my shoulder. "No one make any noise. Grab your guns, I think we have to fight."

Everyone seems to have taken my advice, as it seems they're all grabbing for their weapons. I mentally kick myself for not realizing that we were being followed earlier. Guess we're just going to have to-

SNAP!

"Fuck." My eyes dart over to George, who just stepped on a branch.

The wolves launch themselves at us with a newfound hunger.

The first gun that goes off is courtesy of George, who is able to get a couple bullets through the one launching at him. It doesn't seem to deter the Wolf that much, it just stumbles back and snarls at him.

I shoot the Wolf coming at me a couple times in the leg and it stumbles, but quickly gets up and snarls at me as if nothing just happened.

Nick is dealing with another Wolf, it's trying to get at him but he keeps deflecting it's attacks with his machete.

The last Wolf jumps full force at Skeppy and knocks him to the forest floor, and he lets out a bloodcurdling scream. Bad, the only one to not get targeted by a Wolf, immediately nocks an arrow and aims it at the Wolf.

"Skeppy stop moving!" He screams.

"Bad, just shoot already!" Skeppy squeals, the Wolf trying to bite at him, but he uses his axe to put in the way of him and the wolf. The Wolf keeps snapping at him, and eventually snaps the handle of the axe in half. Skeppy dodges the axehead that flies at him.

"Skeppy I can't, stay still I don't want to shoot you!" Bad screams again.

"Stop being a fucking coward and just shoot!" Skeppy says, but the Wolf finally gets a hit on him. The Wolf rips through the fabric on his forearm and scratches deep into his flesh. Skeppy howls as blood starts pouring out of the fresh wound.

Bad lets the arrow fly, and it finds itself in the Wolf's shoulder blade. The Wolf howls in pain as another arrow finds itself in the Wolf's eye socket, and it falls over.

I shoot another couple bullets at the Wolf in front of me, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. It just keeps getting back up and coming after me. It tries to charge and bite me, but I side step and it crashes into a tree behind me. It just shakes away the pain and turns back to me, snarling with foam dripping from it's jowls.

"What the fuck will kill these things?" I find myself shouting as the Wolf charges again. This time it stands on its hind legs and tries to knock me to the ground, but I toss my gun to the ground and grab it's front legs. It looks confused for all about two seconds, before it starts snapping at me, foam and bits of blood and flesh flying at my face. It snaps at my arms, and tears off some of the fabric on my arms. I can feel it's teeth scrape against my wrists, and blood begin to drip down my arms.

I try not to retch as I fumble for the handle of my knife, then I slash it across it's exposed belly. It howls in pain and I get a couple more slashes in before it gets off me and tries to retreat. I scramble for my gun and then shoot it one more time in the back of the head. It finally falls over and stops moving, the ground around it turning red.

"Someone, help!" I search around frantically for George who's calling out for help. One of the wolves is after him, and his gun is nowhere to be seen, all he's wielding is his pocket knife. There are some scratches on his face and part of his pant leg has been torn off and bloodied by a deep looking wound on his calf.

I rush over and begin shooting at the Wolf's feet. It yelps as a couple shots hit it, George slashes its face for good measure. The Wolf howls in pain and quickly runs off, defeated.

"Thanks." George gets out, us both panting and breathing heavily.

"No problem." I say, wiping off both sweat and blood from my forehead.

Bad took down the Wolf chasing Skeppy, I killed the one after me, George and I just chased that one off.

That only leaves one more wolf...

Nick lets out a shout as something hits the ground. All our heads turn to see the last Wolf having knocked Nick to the ground. His gun flies across the forest floor as the Wolf grabs his foot and starts dragging him away.

"Help! Someone help me!" He frantically screams as he starts getting dragged away. We all run after him as best as we can with our newfound injuries.

George and I grab onto Nick and try to pull him away from his captor, and Bad aims his new favorite weapon, his bow, at the Wolf. An arrow lodges itself in the Wolf's back, but it doesn't look phazed at all. It keeps trying to pull Nick away, but it's not doing well.

It eventually pulls off Nick's shoe and shakes it all around triumphantly, tearing the fabric and leather apart until there's nothing left. A couple more shots from a gun and the Wolf yelps in pain, then runs off into the forest. Skeppy lowers his gun and we all take a sigh of relief.

"Thank god." Nick says, putting a hand over his chest. "Thanks for saving me."

"Anytime, dude." George says, helping him to his feet. Nick frowns at the loss of one of his shoes, but it's better than losing a foot.

"What was that back there, Bad?" Skeppy shouts, looking at his friend.

"I was trying to save you, I didn't want to accidentally shoot you instead of the Wolf!" Bad defends himself, crossing his arms. "And you didn't even say thank you!"

"I got clawed because of you!" Skeppy says, pointing to the wound on his right arm. "Why should I thank you?"

"Uh, I saved your life!" Bad says. "And let me see that." He grabs Skeppy's arm and looks at the wound. Skeppy tries to resist but Bad has a strong grip on his arm.

"Are you guys okay?" I ask, looking at George and Nick. They look pretty shaken up and bloody, but they both nod.

"We need to get our wounds bandaged up." George says, running a hand through his hair. I nod, and glance around.

"Where's the bag with all the medical supplies?" Nick says, as if reading my mind. I squint around the battlefield of our recent attack, trying to spot the bag of our bandages and pain medicine. I finally spot it lying on the ground, probably dropped during the battle, but unfortunately a pair of yellow eyes sees it before me.

"Shit!" I yell, making a run for the bag. But the Wolf makes an appearance and digs it's bloody fangs into the fabric of the bag. It tries to make a run for it, but I manage to get a grip on the bag and tug it away from the Wolf. But the Wolf is determined to get our supplies and make the end of the world even harder for us, so it tries to pull it away from me. I stare it down in it's bloodshot eyes. It's a surprise it can even see through all the blood dripping into its face from the slash marks across it's muzzle.

I begin to feel the fabric tearing, so I let go of the bag. The Wolf stumbles back and shakes the bag a couple times before dropping it to the ground. It changes its target and turns to me. It snarls and steps closer to me, baring it's bloody and foam covered fangs at me. I go to grab my knife but it's not there. The Wolf lunges.

But Bad jumps in front of me and grabs the Wolf by its ears. The Wolf tries to snap at him but he yanks and pulls the Wolf's head all over, confusing and dizzying it. He eventually drives the Wolf's head into the nearest tree trunk, and slams it a couple more times for good measure. He lets go of the Wolf and its runs off, dizzy and confused as it stumbles through the treeline.

"Yeah, get lost you mangy mutt!" Bad shouts as it runs away, it's tail practically between its legs. He turns to me. "Was that too mean?" He asks, looking genuinely concerned about being too mean to the creature that just tried to kill us.

"You have got to be shitting me, Bad." Skeppy says, rolling his eyes as he collects his things from the forest floor.

"Hey, language!" Bad says at Skeppy, who just rolls his eyes again.

"Hey, thanks for saving me." I say to Bad, who helps me up from the ground.

"No problem." He says.

"How did you know to do that?" I ask, genuinely wanting to know. He just shrugs.

"I didn't. I just panicked and did the only thing I could think of." He walks over and picks up the bag of medical supplies the Wolf thankfully didn't take with it. I don't think Wolves can use bandages and tylenol.

"We need to get out of here before the Wolves come back. Again." George says, picking up the things we've dropped on the ground during our battle.

"Agreed." Nick says, frowning at the new dents in his machete.

"We need to bandage our wounds first. Who knows when we're gonna find shelter." Bad says, taking out the bandaging material. That causes me to take a second and examine my wounds, and the pain finally kicks in. My hands are all scratched up and bleeding from my squabble with the wolf, and there's blood coming from a wound on my face somewhere. Bad hands out bandages and we all hastily dress our wounds as best we can. After my hands are covered up well enough to staunch the bleeding, I begin picking up all the items we've hastily dropped or tossed aside during our battle.

We get out of there as fast as possible, so we don't have time to check our supplies, but so far I've lost my knife, George's gun has disappeared, Nick lost a shoe, Skeppy's new fire axe was completely snapped in half, and we've used up a considerable amount of our medical supplies already. Once we find a place to stay for the remainder of the night, we'll recount our supplies and see how much we've lost.

As we make our not-so-hasty escape, I can't help but notice the decaying bodies of zombies on the forest floor, or what used to be zombies, long since destroyed and maimed. There's chunks missing from their rotting flesh, and bites where they've been mauled and bitten into, most likely by the wolves we just encountered. I furrow my brow at the zombies' bodies, a horrible idea forming in the back of my brain.

"Do you think they've been eating the zombies?" I think out loud, looking between the people in my party. They all give each other quick glances.

"It would make sense." George says. "I mean, have you seen any living creatures around for them to feed on?"

"Yeah, it's not like a zombie could catch up with and bite a wolf." Nick adds. As we get away as fast we can, I think about it some more.

It seems to be the only sensible option. If zombies can spread the virus through bites, why not be able to spread it through other animals biting them? Maybe something in the mutation causes it so that if you eat something mutated, you mutate along with it. Adds a whole other meaning to 'you are what you eat'.

By the time our stomachs are growling from the hunger and our feet are begging us to stop and rest, my eyes finally catch on something that will be able to offer us safety.

"Guys, look." I manage to whisper, stopping to look at the bastion of safety.

A treehouse looms twenty feet above us suspended in the trees, a rickety rope ladder hanging down, bidding us to climb up for the night and rest our tired, weary heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to another episode of i can't end chapters
> 
> thank you for reading! if you enjoyed please consider leaving a kudos, i really appreciate it and it encourages me to keep going


	11. just us

~ Bad’s POV ~

“Are you sure this isn’t a trap?” I ask as Nick tugs on the rope ladder, testing if it’s sturdy enough to hold us. It looks hand-made, good enough to hold a person as they climb to the top. It reaches down to the forest floor, only about a foot off the ground. The bottom part is missing a couple boards and the rope looks frayed and gnawed on, suggesting something has come by and tried to tug on or bite the rope ladder. Not promising.

“What other choice do we have?” Nick says tiredly, looking at me as he begins to climb up the ladder. He begins ascending, gripping the boards tightly as he climbs up. The rest of us watch as he scales the ladder. He eventually gets to the top, and we can hear him walking around for a moment. Then his head pops up over the railing and he gives us the thumbs up.

George goes next, Dream behind him.

“How am I going to get up there?” Skeppy asks, looking at his leg worriedly.

“Don’t worry Skeppy, I’ll help you.” I tell him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I would never leave you behind.”

For a moment he’s smiling at me. Then the next it falters and he’s frowning, his eyebrows furrowed. Some trace of a masked traumatic memory sits below the surface. Something that hasn’t made an appearance in a long time, the fire long since doused and put out. Why at this point does it decide to come back? The traces the fire left haven’t completely faded.

“Skeppy-”

“No, I got this.” He swats my hand away half heartedly and begins ascending up the ladder. I open my mouth to speak again, but Skeppy retorts “You don’t need to keep babying me, Bad.” I scoff as I watch him haphazardly climb up, something itching under my skin wanting to tell him to be careful, not wanting to see him fall or slip or even so much as get a splinter.

I am babying him.

I sigh and begin climbing up the ladder as well.

By the time I get up to the top, everyone else has made it up safely. Dream helps pull me up, and I stand up and take in my surroundings. The ‘treehouse’ is made up of a wood platform most likely made from the surrounding trees. The platform is pretty spacious, about the size of a room. It has a simple railing around the edge, and a couple trees are holding it up, leaves, vines and branches sticking out giving it an overgrown feeling. A couple makeshift beds are against the main tree holding up the platform, and there’s a table to the right side, with a backpack leaned against it, and a fresh pair of hunting boots that look untouched.

“This place is awesome!” Skeppy says, looking around the new area.

“Don’t let your guard down too easily.” Dream says, his arms crossed and his eyes searching around the area warily. “We don’t know if this is a trap yet, or if the owners are gonna come back angry at us for stealing their treehouse.” Nick and Skeppy don’t seem to be adhering to his warning, as they’re digging through the backpack and things left on the table.

“We’re all too exhausted to fight.” George says, first to test out one of the beds, which looks to be made out of a simple wooden frame, a mattress and a thin sheet. “I say we just pull up the rope ladder and conk out.”

“That sounds amazing.” Skeppy says, turning back to us, looking suspiciously like he’s about to pass out from exhaustion.

“Hey, look at this!” Nick says, rummaging through the backpack. We all snap our attention to him as his arm is deep in the pack. Some part of me hopes he’s pulling out medical supplies or food, but he comes out with a leather bound notebook.

“A notebook?” Dream says, not amused by his friend’s findings.

“No, it’s a journal!” Nick says, already flipping through it and skimming over his findings. “It’s totally decked out with information, it’s completely full with notes and writings!”

“Wow, Nick, you’re such a nerd.” George says, snickering. Nick just rolls his eyes. He walks over and flips to the last pages as we all begin to recount our supplies and rebandage our fresh cuts and bruises.

“Check this out; the last entry.” Nick says, totally immersed in the new treasure he found. “This treehouse and journal belonged to a lady named Stacy.”

“Well what are you waiting for? Read it to us. We could use a bedtime story.” Dream says after pulling up the rope ladder. He walks over and joins George on one of the beds, and George shoots him a questionable look.

Nick takes a deep breath and begins reading the entry to us. “Me and Graser have been camping out here for awhile. We built this treehouse with a couple other friends, but they left to go find some supplies a long time ago and they haven’t returned. We don’t know if they’re coming back. We need to leave. This place was safe at one point, but the wolves in the surrounding area have become increasingly angry and hostile. We can’t stay here any longer. If anyone finds this treehouse and this journal, feel free to take any of the supplies we have left and stay as long as you’d like.”

“Sweet, free food.” George pipes up, a yawn seeping in at the end of his sentence.

“I hope nothing bad happened to them.” I find myself saying, George’s yawn rubbing off on me. I look over to Skeppy, expecting him to retaliate with something rude, but he’s completely passed out in a sprawled out position on one of the other beds. Dream and George aren’t too far behind him, as Dream has already fallen asleep as well, lightly snoring, George leaned against him trying to keep his eyes open. I look over to Nick, the only other one remaining awake. He catches me staring as he flips through the pages.

“Oh, you go ahead and get some rest. I’ll keep watch, I want to read more of this.” I nod and walk over to the remaining bed and curl up. It’s nice to actually sleep on a mattress for once. Before I know it, sleep finds me, as well as memories.

~

“If you hadn’t gotten us lost, we wouldn’t be in this situation!” Zak shouts, his voice filling the small room, the smoke gathering.

“Well I wasn’t the one who lost all our supplies!” Vincent retaliates, his voice somehow even louder than Zak’s, the embers blazing to life.

“Guys, stop fighting!” I say, trying to get them to calm down and be reasonable, but they ignore me and continue on screaming their heads off at each other. The flames begin to appear.

“I lost our supplies? That was your fault! You never take responsibility for anything! You’re going to get us killed.” Zak says, malice seeping into his words, just adding more kindling to the growing fire of rage beneath both of their surfaces. I need to stop this fire before it burns someone.

“Oh ho ho, I’ll get us killed?” Vincent says, putting a hand on his chest. “I think you’re forgetting you’re the one who put us in this place in the beginning! If we hadn’t met up in the first place, I wouldn’t be stuck with you!” The fire is growing, I can hear it roaring in my ears with their shouts and screams.

“Guys-”

“Oh yeah? Well I wish we never met! That would have been much better than being stuck here with you!” Zak retaliates, both of them looking like they’re about to start punching and make the fire get even bigger.

“Guys, please!” I say, but no use. This fire can’t be stomped out.

“At least we can both agree on something! I would rather die than spend one more minute with you!” Vincent points a finger accusingly at Zak. That does it.

“Just stop-!” I rush to get in between them before they can hurt each other even more, but it results in me getting smacked square in the face. I stumble back as my sinuses flare and my eyes water. My back hits the solid wall. I reach up to my nose and feel blood begin to pour into my agape mouth.

Too late.

Someone got burned.

~

I hear some soft footsteps coming near me. I think nothing of it, as it’s not like there’s a zombie up here. I look towards the sun slowly coming over the horizon, painting the treetops shades of yellows and purples. I can hear a couple birds chirping off in the distance. It’s calming to hear the tweeting of canaries instead of the howling of wolves.

Someone sits down next to me on the ledge. My eyes drift over to see who it is.

“Hey.” Skeppy says quietly, giving a small awkward smile.

“Hi.” I say, smiling back at him, then looking back to the view of the sunrise. There’s a comfortable silence between us as we both watch the sun rise. For a moment it’s like it’s just the two of us. No zombie apocalypse, no sleeping strangers behind us, just me and Skeppy. Watching the sunrise feels like nothing else is happening in the world. Just watching the sun rise on a new morning, full of new opportunities.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry for what I said yesterday.” Skeppy says after a moment. I look over to him. He’s avoiding my gaze, and playing with the cuffs of his sleeves--he does both of things when he’s nervous. I smile at his childish mannerisms.

“It’s okay, I forgive you.” I say. He stops playing with his sleeves and looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “I know you didn’t mean it anyway.”

“So… You’re not mad at me?” He asks, still avoiding my gaze.

“Nope.” I answer. He finally looks at me once he knows I’m not angry at him. It’s a relief to see his brown eyes again. Some of the color is gone ever since this whole thing happened, but I swear I can see it coming back sometimes. I wonder if it will ever fully come back. I remember the day it disappeared. Will I be able to witness the day it reappears?

“Good.” He says, smiling at me.

“Now; Let me see your arm.” I say. He rolls his eyes and pulls his sleeve up over his right arm. He reaches his arm over to me, and I carefully unwrap the bloodied bandage wrapping to look at the wound.

Four long claw marks make their way across his forearm. It doesn’t look like it’ll be infected, but it’s still fresh. It’s stopped bleeding, but it’s going to take awhile to heal.

“Okay, it’s looking better.” I tell him, looking up at him with a reassuring smile. I decide not to tell him that I was worried those scary zombie wolf hybrids would zombify him too. “Hold on, I want to test something.” I say before he can pull his arm away. “Does it hurt if I touch it?” I ask, tentatively hovering a hand over his wound. I look at him before going ahead, looking for permission to touch. He sighs and nods. I place a finger on it.

“Ow!” He hisses and pulls it away. “Don’t touch it!”

“I’m not gonna touch it again!” I say, throwing my hands up defensively. He huffs and crosses his arms. “Let me go get some fresh bandages.” I tell him, putting a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. He nods, distracted by watching the sun rise over the horizon. I stand up and carefully walk over to the backpacks, trying to keep the creaks down to a minimum so as not to wake the other three.

I rummage through my backpack, my fingers finding their way over the little contents that occupy the space in there, reminding me of how little supplies we have. I eventually find the bandaging and pull it out. I frown when I see how little is left. Hopefully one of the other’s has some in their bags that will get us through until we find some more.

I walk back over to Skeppy with the bandage roll in hand and sit back down. He silently offers me his arm, and I carefully wrap the bandaging around, making sure not to wrap it too tight or touch the wound. After I seal it, I set the bandaging aside.

“There. It should be healed soon.” I tell him, not completely sure of my own words. He smiles anyway blissfully and pulls his hoodie sleeve back over it.

“Thanks, Bad.” He scooches the tiniest bit closer to me, so small you probably wouldn’t even notice. “What would I ever do without you?”

“I don’t know. Probably something stupid.” I say with a playful smile. He scoffs.

“Never mind, I take back my apology.” He huffs and looks away from me, crossing his arms like an immature little kid. I chuckle at him as he turns away. But soon enough he slumps against me, leaning his head against my shoulder. I smile as I begin to run my hand through his hair, and I can feel him relax against me.

I wish I could capture this moment with a camera, and save it as a photo. A moment where we don’t have to worry about anything besides each other. When we don’t have a care in the world right now, except for watching the sun rise and enjoying the other’s company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!  
> if you made it this far into the story, consider leaving a kudos on it, maybe? it helps me out and really encourages me to keep going :)  
> also!!! i made some art for this chapter :] i'm not the best at digital art, but I honestly tried, haha.  
> link: https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/421622fd-369b-4791-9f9e-7e96a093d70b/de9knc1-191462ba-fe48-47d7-84bf-268c3b258de6.png/v1/fill/w_800,h_1000,q_80,strp/someone_got_burned_outbreak__by_littlebituqly_de9knc1-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD0xMDAwIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNDIxNjIyZmQtMzY5Yi00NzkxLTlmOWUtN2U5NmEwOTNkNzBiXC9kZTlrbmMxLTE5MTQ2MmJhLWZlNDgtNDdkNy04NGJmLTI2OGMzYjI1OGRlNi5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9ODAwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.krFMvvNJypRS9wSiDZm-NbKps_FcsH0SVMnPQY1LqfE


	12. crystal clear mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the group has to traverse a lake. it seems easy enough, but they're challenged by some unforeseen circumstances.

~ George’s POV ~

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to see a body of water in my life.

When we break through the tree line and we can see the crystal clear lake in front of us, I almost want to just run through the water out of relief.

“Yes, finally!” I say, swatting a tree branch out of my face as we make our way to the shore of the lake. I stop for a moment and remove my map from the back pocket of my jeans and unfold it, the others stopping around me.

“Is this it?” Dream asks, looking out across the large lake right in front of us, running a hand through his messy uneven hair. I can’t help but scrunch my nose at him as I fold out my map, scanning the area of the map we’re currently in. I can’t help but laughing from excitement when I realize we’ve made it.

“Yes, it’s Bear Lake!” I say, looking from the map to the body of water in front of us. “We’re practically in Utah!”

“Let’s go!” Nick says, putting his hands up triumphantly.

“That’s good, right?” Skeppy says, taking a rest to stretch.

“Yeah, it means we’re even closer.” I say, folding the map back up and putting it in my back pocket.

“Utah is still a pretty big state, though.” Bad says, taking off his glasses and cleaning them off on his shirt.

“That’s true.” Dream says, scanning around the shoreline. “But we’re still closer than we were before. And we’re also away from those annoying wolves.”

“So how do we get across?” Nick asks impatiently, staring at the lake, most likely in deep thought.

“I don’t know.” I say, my excitement from just a moment ago beginning to fade away. The lake is gigantic. Walking around would probably result in us getting attacked by another mutated creature again, and there’s no way we can cross just by swimming, plus who knows what mutated nightmares lurk just beneath the surface.

“Hey, look at that.” Nick says from beside me, pointing to something off near the tree line. I furrow my brow as I look at it. It looks like a small wooden stand, reminiscent of a lemonade stand that a small child would set up during the heat of the summer time, sort of like it is now.

Nick and I walk over to investigate, and as we get closer, I realize it’s an informational stand. It has the name of the lake brandished across the top, a couple janky memorabilia shirts with the same logo stapled to the posts, and a small glass container filled with pamphlets. I pluck one of the pamphlets from the container as Nick pulls a shirt off of the post and dusts it off.

I fold open the pamphlet.

Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake on the Idaho–Utah border in the Western United States. About 109 square miles (280 km2) in size, it is split about equally between the two states-

I skim over most of the information, as most of it is not helpful for us at the moment. I don’t think I need to know the original name of the lake to be able to get across it.

“Anything in there that’ll help us?” Nick says, stuffing the shirts into his backpack.

“It says that the lake is about 20 miles long, and 208 feet deep.” I relay to him, closing the pamphlet. “Guess that means we’re not swimming it.”

“Good.” Nick says, a sigh of relief escaping him. “I was not looking forward to that.”

“How are we supposed to get across then?” I ask no one in particular, and Nick seems to understand that by not responding. We both look at the crystal clear lake that lies ahead of us. Although the surface is clear and translucent, I can barely see beneath it, as if it is hiding some secret from us about what lies beneath, luring us into an inescapable trap that could result in our utter demise.

Man, fuck the zombie apocalypse. I hate this, I hate feeling like this, I hate thinking like this. I hate having to immediately think of the worst possible scenario. I hate having to worry about how we’re going to survive every single fucking minute. I hate having to move around constantly, with no reliance on anything. I hate, I hate, I hate-

“Guys! Get your asses over here!” Rings out, catching Nick and I’s attention, shortly followed by an “Ay! Language!”

Nick and I both follow the voice, and spot the other three crowded around something on the shore of the lake. When Dream sees us coming, he smiles and spreads his arms out like he’s just got us a present.

“Look! A boat!” He announces, the giddy obvious in his tone.

“Holy shit! Let’s go!” Nick says, us both running over to see it, Bad once again raising his voice to scold our use of language.

“Does it still work?” Skeppy asks, examining the small motor and fan at the end of the small, dirty boat. “How do we even get it to work?”

Suddenly everyone falls silent. Dream’s smile fades and his shoulders go slack.

“Oh, I, uh…” He says, licking his lips. “I guess I didn’t think about that.”

“Let me see.” Bad says, walking over to the back of the boat. We all watch him as he squats down and begins examining the engine. He makes a couple faces as he looks it over, then climbs into the boat. He mumbles something about choking and neutral, which makes the rest of us raise an eyebrow.

He tugs on something, pulling back on a cord.

Nothing happens.

He grumbles and mutters something, and pulls again.

This time the engine roars to life.

Everyone cheers.

“Oh my god, Bad you did it!” Skeppy says as bad jumps out of the boat, Skeppy throwing his arms around his friend.

“Wait, how did you know to do that?” I find myself asking, looking at the now running motorboat.

“I’ve been fishing a couple times.” Bad says, an arm still around Skeppy.

“Dude, how did we get so lucky to have you on our team?” Dream says, beginning to put our bags into the boat. “You know how to work a bow, how to deal with wolves, and now you know how to start a motorboat?” Dream laughs to himself, and we all join in on putting our bags into the boat.

We’re all ready to jump into the boat and get away from this wretched forest-we can see the edge of the forest beyond the lake-but Bad speaks up before we all get in the barge.

“Based on the sounds of the engine, I don’t think it has a lot of gas left in it.” Bad speaks up, eyeing the engine warily. “Did you hear how it sputtered? What if we get stranded out there?” He looks out to the middle of the lake suspiciously. I bite my lip. He could be saying the truth. What happens if we do get stuck? Do we swim the rest of the way and risk getting our legs torn off by some monster lurking beneath the surface?

“Okay, well,” Nick says, walking over to the treeline and picking something up. A semi-broken oar. “We’ll bring some things to row with! Get some exercise in.”

“We’ve already got so much exercise in.” Skeppy says in an unimpressed voice, him already sitting in the boat with his legs pulled up to his chest.

“Better than getting stranded.” Bad says, picking up a long branch from the forest floor and bringing it over.

We find another oar just in case, then we all cram ourselves in the boat, and Nick is able to push the boat into the water. Dream sits at the front and Bad in the back to man the boat.

Bad gets the boat going, and soon enough we’re sailing away from the shore. As we get going, it feels nice to have the wind breezing through my hair. It reminds me of my life before, when we’d drive with the windows down and music blaring through the speakers, not caring about how hot it was because the wind was blowing in your face so hard you had to squint. I even miss the stupid songs that would play over the radio, even though they were so cheesy you couldn’t help but sing as loud as possible with your friends, practically screaming into the wind, not a single care in the world.

I can’t help but smile to myself at the thought-Whether it’s a happy smile because of the cheerful memories of a sad smile because I miss the days before, I don’t know, but it feels nice to smile again, albeit a bit odd due to our circumstances. Although I’m not used to relaxing during the end of the world. I relax my shoulders and close my eyes, letting the blissful feeling sink in for just a moment, not worrying if I look weird to my friends.

But then the wind stops blowing through my hair, and the whirring of the engine of the motorboat begins sputtering out, dying. I open my eyes and turn to see Bad hitting the engine, trying to get it to keep going.

“Come on! Don’t die on us!” Bad says, frustration in his voice. He pulls on the cord a couple times, but we’ve slowed down to a stop and the engine is completely dead. I turn back to see how much of the lake we have left to cross, and my heart sinks, the feeling of complete bliss from just a moment ago completely melting away.

“Well I guess it’s a good thing we got these.” Skeppy says, picking up one of the makeshift oars, but Bad quickly takes it away from him.

“Since when were you the optimist, Skeppy?” Nick asks as Skeppy makes a face at Bad for taking his oar.

“Shut up, Snapmap.” Dream says, grabbing an oar as he shoots Nick a smirk, Nick just wrinkling his nose.

“Don’t call me that.” Nick says, taking the last oar before Skeppy can grab it.

“It’s funny!” Dream says, a laugh escaping his mouth that just sounds painful.

“I should never have told you that story.” Nick says, shaking his head as the three begin to row, slowly moving us across the lake.

“What story?” Skeppy asks inquisitively.

“It’s nothing.” Nick says quickly, trying to change the subject. “Hey George, did you read that pamphlet all the way through?”

“No. Why?” I ask as I watch the ripples in the water beneath us. It’s so tempting to just stick my hand in the water and let the cool water clean my dirty fingernails and palms.

“There was something in there about a monster in the lake.” Nick says, a stupid smile on his face. I roll my eyes.

“Oh yeah, sure. Like the Lopp neck monster.” I say. Dream wheezes.

“Do you mean Loch ness monster?” He asks between choked out wheezes.

“That’s what I said.” I correct myself. “Anyways, it’s not real.”

Suddenly Bad yelps, drawing all our attention to him. We look and see his oar ripped from his hands and pulled down beneath the surface of the water. I lean over the boat and look down, seeing the piece of wood sinking down faster than normal and disappearing into the darkness below, like something is dragging it down. A shiver runs down my spine as I swallow hard.

“You sure about that, Georgie?”

===

By the time the last oar is ripped away from Dream’s hands, we’re close enough to the shore to swim or walk. But no one really wants to do that. After all, something we can’t see has literally stolen all three of our oars.

Dream sits back and we all fall silent, not knowing what to do. The water looks shallow enough for us to wade through, but none of us are sure if that’s a good idea. Whatever has stolen our oars could definitely suck us below the surface, and who knows what it would do to us. We definitely know it’s not just the tide stealing our oars.

“Welp, guess we have to walk.” Skeppy says, breaking the unbearable silence. He hops out of the boat and into the water.

“Skeppy! Wait, we should come up with a plan first!” Bad says as Skeppy begins to wade through the water. Skeppy turns back to face us.

“I’m already in the water.” He spreads out his arms. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“Skeppy there could be something dangerous in the water! Do not wade away from me!” Bad shouts as Skeppy begins to get away from us, Skeppy only offering a middle finger gesture in return.

The boat rocks as Dream jumps out next, then Nick, and I follow suit. As we begin to wade as fast as possible away, I hear the water splash as Bad gets out of the boat as well.

The water is up to my shoulders, whereas the others seem to be at chest height(except for Skeppy). I grumble as the cold seeps into my bones, my clothes sticking to my skin completely soaked. I can feel the goosebumps on my arms as I shiver. Why is the water so cold? It’s literally summer.

Somehow everyone gets to the shore before me. I feel a bit tired and sluggish, and it’s hard to get my legs to keep moving. It’s like the sand beneath me is trying to pull me down, like quicksand. I almost want to give into it.

“George, hurry up.” Dream says from the shoreline, helping Nick onto the dry, warm sand. I wrinkle my nose at the thought, the water is nice and welcoming.

“I’m trying.” I tiredly tell him, trying to walk faster, the water seems to push against me, like it wants me to stay. I almost want to let it.

I become aware that something is brushing against my leg. I stop and look down, expecting to see a fish or some reeds. But I can’t tell what’s brushing against my leg, my eyes are too tired to focus. I try to blink a couple times to focus my vision on the blob touching my leg, but it’s hard to open my eyes.

“George! Get out of the lake!” Nick says, practically shouting, but he sounds too far away. Surely they wouldn’t be angry if I just took a quick rest, right? I can catch up later.

Someone yells something again, but I can’t tell what it is or even who said it. I’m too tired. I need to lay down. I don’t even mind that I’m in water, I’m sure I’ll be fine. The water beneath me looks so warm and welcoming, beckoning me to lay down and stay awhile. That sounds nice.

I need to lay down.

Something whizzes past me and into the water. I blink a couple times, the tiredness fading away. I look down and see something retracting back into the water behind me, an arrow head stuck in it.

By the time I’m falling forward it’s too late for me to stop myself. Thankfully, Dream catches me.

“Dude, are you okay?” He asks worriedly, helping me stand up in the knee-deep water, quickly walking the two of us out of the lake.

“What just happened?” I ask sluggishly as I push the hair out of my face, my energy regaining itself and my fingertips twitching.

“Something tried to grab you.” Skeppy explains as Dream pulls me onto the shore. “Something from in the lake.”

“What?” I ask as Dream sets me down on the sand, looking back to the lake suspiciously.

“Yeah, it was like a tentacle or something.” Bad says. “I shot it, and it went back into the water. Hopefully it doesn’t bother us again.” I notice that Bad has his bow in hand, his quiver over his shoulder again.

“Are you okay?” Nick asks, kneeling down and looking at me. “You were slowing down. Was it pulling you down?” He looks at my ankle where the thing seemed to have grabbed me, but not even a mark is left.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think it was making me tired or something.” I say, everyone looks a bit worried for me. “Don’t worry, I’m fine, though. At least we got out of the lake. And! We should be in Utah!”

I excitedly reach for the map in my back pocket.

Then I freeze when I realize it’s completely soaked and waterlogged.

===

We’re still shivering from our dip into Bear lake by the time we’re out of the woods. We’ve been following the road, as our only map was completely ruined by the water. I feel so stupid, letting it get ruined, all my usefulness fading away. Not to mention whatever the hell happened in the water...

We trudge through the abandoned streets, our clothes still wet and our bones still freezing. We haven’t encountered any zombies since we left the lake, and it’s honestly worrying. We’ve passed(and ransacked)plenty of houses, meaning there should be zombies. Where have they all gone?

As we’re walking, a building catches my eye.

A large mansion surrounded by a wrought iron fence topped with barbed wire.

“Sweet! We should raid that place.” Nick says, pointing in the direction as we all look at the building.

“Not a good idea.” Skeppy says, shaking his head. “All the lights are on in there, obviously someone still lives there. I doubt they’re friendly.”

“But rich people could still have electricity going in their house.” Nick argues. “It’s a mansion, obviously rich people live there.”

“Skeppy’s right, we shouldn’t risk it.” Dream says, looking at the mansion. “All the lights are on, I’m highly suspicious of that fence, and look;” He points to the fence line as we get closer. I notice what he’s pointing at by the small blinking red light.

“Cameras. They’re on. Whoever is in there is prepared for the zombie apocalypse and I wouldn’t mess with them.”

Nick groans. “Fine.”

I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed to pass up such an awesome opportunity-especially with our constant need for supplies-but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

So we walk past the fenceline of the mansion, and onto the path that leads through the gate to the driveway.

But then the ground is rumbling beneath us, and suddenly the earth no longer seems stable.

“What the fuck?” Dream says as we try to stable ourselves, Bad not even moving to correct him. I look around, and notice a fence begins to rise from the ground around us, encasing us in a prison. All the words escape me as I watch the fence tower over us.

Suddenly machinery whirs to life. I turn towards the sound, and notice a hole in the ground open up, and a platform begins to rise up, dirt and rock falling as the platform rises. Atop the platform stands a figure in red with a welder’s mask and a flamethrower, flames erupt from the mouth of the flamethrower that are too close for comfort.

What the fuck?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a cliffhanger, muahahaha :)
> 
> sorry for the long time between chapters! i’m always very busy around the holidays, and i didn’t have a lot of motivation to work on this story. thankfully now that christmas is over i’ll have more time to focus on this story!
> 
> thanks for reading! i really appreciate it. please consider leaving a kudos if you’ve enjoyed the story thus far :)
> 
> also comment your guesses about who the ‘figure in red’ is! i’d love to see your guys’ guesses.


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